[IT ATI ON 
Lie BUILDINGS 



*: WILIJAM PAUL GERHARD 




Class _3j:^A^ 
Boole Qc4- 

Copyright ]»I^_____ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



House Drainag:e and Sanitary Plumbing:. D. Van Nostrand Co. 
13th Edition. Sci. Series No. 63. 

Recent Practice in the Sanitary Drainagre of Buildingrs. D. Van 

Nostrand Co. 2nd Edition. Sci. Series No. 93. 

The Disposal of Household Wastes. D. Van Nostrand Co. 

2nd Edition. Sci. Series No. 97. 

Sanitary Engineering: of Buildingrs. lUus. W. T. Comstock. 

The Sanitation of Public Building-s (Hospitals, Theatres, 
Churches, Schools, Markets and Abattoirs). John Wiley 
& Sons. 

A Guide to Sanitary House Inspection. John Wiley & Sons. 
3d Edition. 

Sanitary Engrineering:. D. Van Nostrand Co. 

Gas Lig:hting: and Gas Fitting:. D. Van Nostrand Co. 3d Edi- 
tion. Sci. Series No. 111. 

The Prevention of Fire, chiefly with reference to Hospitals and 

Asylums. Published by the Author. 

Theatre Fires and Panics : Their Causes and Prevention. 

John Wiley & Sons. 

Theatres : Their Safety from Fire and Panic, their Comfort and 
Hea'thfulness. Bates & Guild Co., Boston. 

The Superintendence of Piping: Installations in Building:s 

(Sanitary, Hydraulic and Gas). McGraw Publishing Co. 

Modern Baths and Bath Houses. Illustrated. (In prepara- 
tion.) John Wiley & Sons. 

The American Practice of Gas Piping: and Gas Lig:hting: in 
Building:s. McGraw Publishing Co. (In preparation. ) 

The Sanitation, Water=supplyand Sewag:e Disposal of Country 
Houses. Illustrated. D. Van Nostrand Co. 



SANITATION 



OF 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS 



BY 



WILLIAM PAUL GERHARD, C. E. 

Consulting Engineer for Hydraulic and Sanitary Works; Mem. Am. Soc. Mech, Engrs.; 
Corr. Mem. Am. Inst, of Architects ; Mem. Am. Public 
Health Association, etc. 



FIRS T EDITION 

FIRST THOUSAND 



NEW YORK 

JOHN WILEY & SONS 

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited 
1907 






■y 



UCRAiaY of CONGRESS 
TVro Cooles ReceJyecf 

tiijMb 1901 

Oooynffhf Erstrv 
Ktn/ ^ Hot 
CLASS A XXc, 4o, 

COPY S. 



Copyright, 1907 

BY 

WILLIAM PAUL GERHARD 



7- S7Pz^ 



Sobrrt Srummoni) anb (Eontfrang 



PREFACE 

This book is intended to discuss some features of 
sanitation in Public Buildings, with special reference 
to Drainage, Water Supply, Lighting, and Ventilation. 
Among public buildings, we may distinguish: 
(i) Those having a permanent population, both in 
daytime and at night, such as the hospitals of all 
kinds, orphan asylums, homes for aged people, and 
prisons or jails; 

(2) Those having a large gathering of persons only 
during the day, such as schools, court-houses, markets, 
and abattoirs ; 

(3) Those in which people congregate for a few hours 
only, either in day time, or in the evening hours, such 
as churches and theatres. 

Of the buildings mentioned, I have selected the hos- 
pitals, or the buildings for the care of the sick, the feeble- 
minded, or the injured as being the most important 
ones; next the churches and theatres, where very large 
crowds assemble during a few hours, either for worship 
or for amusement; following these I speak of schools,, 
where large numbers of children are crowded together- 
during the day for instruction, education, and mind; 
improvement. 

Of much importance, sanitarily, are finally the mar- 
ket buildings, where the food supplies for the popula- 

iii 



iv PREFACE. 

tion of cities are kept for sale, and not less, the abat- 
toirs, where the meat supplies are prepared for the 
market. 

Accordingly, I have divided the book into five 
chapters, viz. : 

I. Hospital Sanitation. 
II. Theatre Sanitation. 

III. Church Sanitation. 

IV. School Sanitation. 

V. Sanitary Features of Markets and Abattoirs. 

The volume is, in some sense, a continuation of the 
author's work "Sanitary Engineering of Build- 
ings," which is devoted largely to the sanitary work 
of dwelling-houses, apartments, and tenement-houses. 

Public bath-houses will be discussed in a separate 
volume, entitled "Modern Baths and Bath Houses," 
which the publishers of the present book expect to 
bring out before the end of the year. 

Inasmuch as there is, at the present time, no Ameri- 
can book published, in which the subjects mentioned 
are treated in a practical way, it is to be hoped that 
this volume may meet the same kindly reception which 
was accorded to previous writings of the author. 

Wm. Paul Gerhard, C.E. 
July, 1907. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface iii 

Contents v 

I. Hospital Sanitation 3 

1. Drainage and Sewerage 5 

2. Sewage Disposal 8 

3. Water Supply 12 

4. Plumbing in General 21 

5. Some Plumbing Details 27 

6. Subdivision of Hospital Buildings 33 

7. Water-closet Rooms and Fixtures for Hospital 

Wards 34 

8. Bath-rooms for Hospital Wards 38 

9. Lavatories for Hospital Wards , 41 

10. Nurses' Toilet-rooms 42 

11. Bath-rooms for the Officers and Medical Staff 43 

12. Operating Rooms 43 

13. The Hospital Kitchen 45 

14. The Scullery. 47 

15. The Pantry 47 

16. The Hospital Bakery 48 

17. Refrigerator Room and Ice House . . 49 

18. The Hospital Laundry 49 

19. The Boiler-house 51 

20. The Drug Store and Dispensary 51 

21. Water-closets for Employees 51 

22. The Mortuary or Deadhouse 52 

23. The Disinfecting Station 53 

V 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

24. Garbage Disposal 53 

25. Sewage Disinfection 54 

26. Hot-water Supply 54 

27. Water Supply for Fire Protection Purposes 55 

Conclusion 66 

Note 56 

Bibliography 57 

II. Theatre Sanitation 65 

1. Unsanitary Conditions in Theatres 65 

2. Drainage and Sewerage 70 

3. Plumbing 71 

4. Water-supply System 75 

5. Ventilation 76 

6. Lighting of Theatres 82 

7. General Sanitation 83 

Bibliography ., 86 

HI. Church Sanitation 89 

1. Sanitary Defects in Churches 90 

2. Sanitary Inspection of Churches 98 

3. Application of the Principles of Sanitation to Churches 102 

4. Building Site 103 

5. Plan and Construction 103 

6. Precautions Against Fire and Panic 105 

7. Seating 106 

8. Dust in Carpets and Cushions 107 

9. Artificial Lighting of Churches 107 

10. Heating and Ventilation 108 

11- Basements or Cellars Ill 

12. Sewerage and Plumbing 112 

Bibliography 114 

IV. School Sanitation 117 

1. Definition of Terms 117 

2. School Sanitation 118 

LOCATION OR SITE V 119 

3. Choice of Site 119 

4. Area of School Grounds. • 120 

5. Soil 120 

6. Surroundings 130. 



CONTENTS. vii 

School Sanitation — Continued. page 

7. Aspect 121 

8. Trees on School Grounds 122 

9. Beautifying School Grounds 122 

10. Play Grounds 122 

THE SCHOOL BUILDING 123 

11. Construction 123 

12. Safety from Fire 124 

13. Boiler Room 124 

14. Walls 124 

15. Ceilings and Floors 125 

16. Entrances 125 

17. Corridors 125 

18. Staircases 125 

19. Exits 126 

20. Disposition of Class-rooms : 126 

21. Number of Floors 126 

22. Basement 127 

23. Fire Escapes 127 

24. Sewerage 128 

25. Assembly and Special Rooms 128 

26. Exterior of Building 129 

27. Interior Decoration 129 

THE SCHOOL ROOM 130 

28. Shape and Dimensions of Class-rooms 130 

29. Standard Shape 130 

30. Length 131 

31. Width 131 

32. Height 131 

33. Floor Space 132 

34. Cubic Space 132 

35. Floors of Class-rooms 132 

36. Walls of Class-rooms. 133 

37. Doors 133 

38. Lighting by Windows 133 

39. Direction of Light — Position of Windows 134 

40. Window Shades 135 

41. Blackboards 135 

42. School Seats and Desks 135 

43. Wardrobes 136 

44. Accident Room 137 



viii CONTENTS. 

School Sanitation— Confinweti. page 

HEATING AND VENTILATION 137 

45. Systems of Heating 137 

46. Heating by Stoves 138 

47. Furnace Heating 138 

48. Steam Heating 139 

49. Hot-water Heating 139 

50. Heating System to be Designed by Experts 139 

51. Ventilation 140 

52. Air Flushing 141 

53. Requirements as Regards Air Supply 141 

54. Removal of Sources of Air Contamination 142 

55. Removal of Foul Air 142 

56. Ventilation of Toilet-rooms 143 

57. Air Moistening and Temperature Control 143 

LIGHTING 143 

58. Daylight Illumination 143 

59. Artificial Illumination 144 

60. Electric Light 144 

61. Gas Light 145 

62. Oil Lamps and Candles 145 

FIRE PROTECTION 145 

63: Fire Protection Apparatus 146 

SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS 146 

64. Location of Toilet-rooms 146 

65. Objections to Outside Toilet Pavilions 147 

66. Basement Toilet-rooms 147 

67. Water-closet Fixtures Suitable for Schools 148 

68. Toilet-rooms for Upper Floors 148 

69. Teachers' Toilets 148 

70. Number of Water-closets Required for Pupils 149 

71 . Floors, Walls and Partitions of Toilet-rooms 149 

72. Water-closet Ranges 149 

73. Dry-closets 150 

74. Outside Closets for Country Schools 150 

75. Boys' Urinals .150 

76. Material for Urinals 151 

77. Types of School Urinals 151 

78. Care of Toilet-rooms 152 

79. Drinking Fountains 153 

80. Lavatories 153 



CONTENTS. ix 

School Sanitation — Continued. vkg-e 

81. School Baths 153 

82. Forms of Baths 154 

83. Advantages of Rain-baths 154 

84. Details of Construction of Rain-baths 1 55 

85. Sewerage 1 56 

86. Sewage Disposal 157 

MAINTENANCE OF CLEANLINESS 158 

87. Care of Class-rooms 158 

88. School Janitors 158 

89. Daily Cleaning 159 

90. Periodical Cleaning 160 

91. Disinfection 161 

92. Dust and Rubbish 161 

93. Sanitary Inspections 162 

SOME GENERAL SANITARY CONDITIONS 162 

94. Medical Inspections 162 

Bibliography 163 

V. Sanitation of Markets and Abattoirs 175 

1. Markets 175 

2. Abattoirs 175 

markets 176 

3. Food Supplies 176 

4. Development of the Market Building 176 

5. Advantages of Public or Municipal Markets 178 

6. Location 179 

7. Constructive Features of Market Buildings 180 

8. Interior Features , 181 

9. Interior Equipment 182 

10. Refrigerating Plant 183 

11. Maintenance of Cleanliness, Water Supply and 

Plumbing 184 

12. Ventilation , 184 

13. Lighting 185 

14. Removal of Waste Food and of Offal 185 

abattoirs 186 

15. Object of Abattoirs 186 

16. Evils of Private Slaughter-houses 186 

17. Advantages of Central Abattoirs 188 

18. Private and Municipal Abattoirs 190 



X CONTENTS. 

Sanitation op Markets and Abattoirs — Continued. pagb 

19. Development of the Abattoir 191 

20. Unsanitary Conditions of Abattoirs 193 

21. Site for Abattoirs 195 

22. Buildings Composing an Abattoir 196 

23. Planning of Abattoirs 198 

24. The Main Slaughtering Hall 199 

25. Features of Construction 200 

26. Floors 201 

SANITARY FEATURES 202 

27. Water Supply 202 

28. Drainage 204 

29. Purification of the Waste-water 205 

30. Lighting 205 

31. Toilet- and Bath-rooms 206 

32. Heating and Ventilation 206 

33. Maintenance of Cleanliness , 206 

34. Mechanical Equipment 208 

35. Sanitary Inspection Service 208 

Bibliography 210 

Appendices , 215 

appendix a. 

Fire Protection and Fire Prevention in Hospitals ... 215 

In General 215 

Fire-Extinguishing Apparatus 216 

Inside Fire Apparatus 216 

Outside Fire Apparatus 216 

Fire Pumps 217 

Fire Mains and Water Mains 217 

Fire Hydrants 217 

Fire Hose for Hydrants 218 

Hose Carts 218 

Portable Chemical Engine 218 

Inside Fire Standpipes 218 

Fire Valves 219 

Fire Hose for Inside Use 219 

Hose Reels or Racks, Hose Couplings and Fire Nozzles. . 219 

Fire Pails. 220 

Chemical and Pneumatic Hand Extinguishers 220 

Automatic Sprinkler System 220 



CONTENTS. xi 

Appendices — Continued. - page 

Fire-alarm System 220 

Hose Tower and House 221 

Hospital Fire Brigade 221 

Fire Districts — Plan of Districts — Location of Hydrants 

and Fire Alarm Boxes 222 

Fire Escapes and Fireproof Stairs 222 

Rules as to Fire Prevention 222 

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE 223 

Matches and Tapers 223 

Watchman's Lamp 223 

Smoking 223 

Fires in Grates 223 

Flues 223 

Gas — Gas Leakage — Jointed Gas Brackets 223 

Accumulation of Waste Material 224 

Smell of Fire not to be Disregarded.. 224 

Everyone Should be Used to the Fire Appliances — Fire 
Drill 224 

IN CASE OF AN OUTBREAK OF FIRE 224 

Extinguishing Fire 224 

Removal of Inmates 225 

Escape 225 

Send Alarm to Nearest Fire Station 225 

- Keep Doors Shut 225 

Free Breathing 226 

Turn off the Gas at the Meter 226 

Coolness and Presence of Mind 226 

Clothing on Fire ^ 226 

APPENDIX B 227 

APPENDIX c' 229 

appendix d 234 

Alphabetical Index 239 



HOSPITAL SANITATION 



I. 

HOSPITAL SANITATION. 

This subject is one of such magnitude as to render 
it impossible to deal with the same exhaustively in the 
short limits of a single chapter. Nevertheless, I shall 
try to discuss, be it ever so briefly, the matters which 
are of most importance, namely the plumbing, the 
water supply, and the sewerage. 

Let us assume, by way of introduction, that both 
the architect and the Building Committee of a hos- 
pital have recognized the fact that the crowding to- 
gether of a very large number of disabled and diseased 
persons in a confined area requires the most complete 
and carefully considered sanitary arrangements. The 
application of modern sanitary principles and the in- 
stallation of approved sanitary appliances, which are 
necessary even in the case of ordinary dwellings, wherein 
only a few healthy persons are sheltered, become of 
paramount importance in the case of sick and helpless 
patients. 

Hence the first axiom in hospital construction should 
be that such buildings should under no circumstances 
be monumental or palatial structures. The outer ap- 
pearance of the buildings should be characterized by 
severe simplicity. No money should be appropriated 



4 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

or spent for purely architectural display, for ornamen- 
tation or for outside show. On the other hand, every- 
thing should be done to make the buildings safe and 
healthful, and it should be the constant aim to secure 
the best hygienic construction and the latest approved 
sanitary appliances. (See note at end of chapter.) 

I also wish to point out and lay stress upon the neces- 
sity of engaging the services of a hydraulic and sanitary 
engineer at an early stage of the work, for even in the 
selection of the site for a hospital, questions of drain- 
•age and water supply may and will arise, which can 
be decided in the best manner by the thorough knowl- 
edge and practical experience of such a specialist. 

Practically, it makes no difference whether the hos- 
pital building is intended for a general hospital, or is 
to be one of the various special hospitals, such as a 
fever hospital and hospital for infectious diseases, or 
a lying-in hospital, a surgical hospital, a military hos- 
pital, a children's hospital, or a hospital for insane 
patients. The general principles and arrangements re- 
main about the same, though each may, in addition, 
have some special requirements. 

The two great general sanitary requirements for hos- 
pitals, whether small cottage or village hospitals, or 
large city hospitals of many stories, are: 

(i) Plenty of light and fresh air, particularly for the 
wards, for the toilet-rooms, the pantries and closets. 

(2) Absolute cleanliness, inside as well as outside 
of the buildings. 

It will be well to bear both requirements constantly 
in mind in the following discussion. A perfect system 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 5 

of water supply, sewerage, plumbing, and ventilation 
will help considerably in securing both conditions. 

I. Drainage and Sewerage. — In determining the site 
for the building, the drainage and sewerage must at 
once be taken into consideration. Where the hos- 
pital is to be located within the city limits, the prob- 
lem generally is a simple one and presents few, if any, 
difficulties, for as a rule, a city sewer will be available 
for connection at not too great a distance. But, if the 
building is to be located in the outskirts of a town, 
or in the country, where there are no public sewers, it 
will be necessary to determine at once upon a general 
sewerage scheme. The first matter to be settled will 
be the position of the main sewer outfall, for upon this 
will depend the layout and the grades of the sewer 
laterals and branches, and the arrangement and course 
of the house sewers. 

Another point of imf)ortance, which requires early 
consideration, is the question whether the sewerage 
shall be arranged on the "separate" or on the "com- 
bined" system. In the first system, the rain-water 
from roofs, yards, and roadways is excluded from the 
hospital sewers; in the combined system, storm- water 
as well as foul sewage are received in the same sewer 
channels. 

As a rule, it is much better to deal with the rainfall 
separately. The rain-water can often be stored in cis- 
terns and may be utilized in the laundry or in the 
boiler-room, and this might with advantage be done 
much more often than is actually the case. Again, it 
should be borne in mind that the sewage proper from 



6 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

a hospital often has to "be purified or dealt with in a 
special manner, before it can be discharged into a 
water course. In all such cases, the admission of a 
portion or all of the rainfall increases the volume of 
sewage to be treated — which, moreover, sometimes 
has to be pumped — and hence renders any method of 
sewage purification more expensive and difficult in 
management. Another consideration bearing upon 
economy in construction, refers to the size of the main 
sewer and of the lateral branches. Where the rainfall 
is admitted to the sewers, their sizes must be calcu- 
lated in proportion to the maximum amount of rainfall 
to be removed. On the other hand, where rainfall is 
excluded or dealt with separately, the sizes of sewers 
will be greatly reduced, and a more uniform and con- 
stant flow will be secured, which in turn will make the 
sewers more self- cleansing. 

In the majority of instances it is undoubtedly better 
to arrange the sewerage of an isolated hospital accord- 
ing to the "separate system." 

In designing a sewer system for a hospital, the fol- 
lowing chief requirements must be fulfilled. All sewers 
should be self -cleansing, free from deposits, and abso- 
lutely water-tight. Ample ventilation should be pro- 
vided to the main sewer as well as to the laterals, and 
provision made for keeping the sewer lines accessible 
for inspection and cleaning. 

The alignment should be as straight as possible, and 
where changes in direction are required, they should be 
made with easy curves in manholes. All junctions 
should be made with acute-angled branches and never 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 7 

at right angles. Sewers should be laid at the proper 
depth and on true grades, and the fall should be as 
uniform as possible. 

Manholes and lampholes for inspection should be 
placed at suitable intervals on all mains and laterals. 
Provision for daily automatic or periodic hand-flushing 
should be made at the head of all laterals. Sewers 
should be well ventilated, which is generally accom- 
plished by the use. of ventilating covers on the manholes. 

Hospital sewers are rarely required of such dimen- 
sions as to necessitate the construction of brick sewers. 
As a rule, they consist of pipe sewers, proportioned in 
size to the maximum volume of sewage which they may 
be called upon to carry. The best available material 
for small sewers is vitrified sewer-pipe, which is more 
smooth and impervious than cement pipe. Iron sewer- 
pipes are used near buildings, also where sewers neces- 
sarily cross under the basement of buildings, and 
where the sewers must be laid in made ground. 

The joints of vitrified pipe sewers should be made 
tight by means of Portland cement, care being taken 
in making the joints that no cement protrudes on the 
inside of joints where, in hardening, it would form ^ 
serious obstruction to the free and uninterrupted flow 
of sewage. The pipes require to be laid on a firm bear- 
ing to prevent subsequent breakage, and in yielding 
ground it is desirable to lay them on boards or concrete 
foundations. All drains for sewage should be tested 
when laid, first, as to their lightness, by a water-pressure 
test, and second, as to their inside smoothness and 
ability to remove sewage matters, which is ascertained 



8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

by passing a wooden ball through the pipes from man- 
hole to manhole. 

Manholes should be located at distances of about 
200 or 300 feet, and at every 100 feet there should be 
lampholes to facilitate the inspection of the pipes from 
the manholes. The bottom of sewer manholes should 
be formed as a semi-circular channel, molded in cement, 
and the sides of the bottom should have a steep inclina- 
tion to prevent sewage matters from becoming stranded. 

Where the separate system of sewerage is adopted, 
the storm-water falling on roofs and yards may be 
taken care of in one of three ways, i.e., it is either col- 
lected and removed by separate rain-water drains, and 
discharged into a nearby water course, or else it is 
gathered in rain-water cisterns usually built under- 
ground, or finally, it may be allowed to run off on 
the surface and into road ditches, or into some water 
course. 

Where the ground, upon which the hospital buildings 
are located, is damp, wet, or full of springs, drainage 
of the soil is advisable. This is accomplished by special 
lines of agricultural or land drains, consisting of porous, 
unglazed earthen round pipes, laid with open joints in 
deep trenches. The sewers for foul water should never 
be made to fulfill the double duty of removing the 
sewage and draining the land. The subsoil water, 
after being gathered in land drains, may be suitably 
disposed of by discharge into an open water course. 
Similar tile drains may be necessary along the footing 
courses of the foundation walls. 

2. Sewage Disposal. — Where the hospital sewers con- 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 9 

nect with a city sewer system, the disposal of the 
sewage need not be further considered, except that 
cases may arise where it will be advisable to arrange 
for utilizing a part or the whole of the sewage on hos- 
pital land for farm irrigation purposes during certain 
portions of the year. On the other hand, where there 
is no regular sewerage system, the problem of sewage 
disposal will confront the hospital authorities. The 
simple crude discharge of sewage into a water course 
is no longer approved, except where the buildings are 
located near a very large stream, when the immediate 
dilution and the rapid current would render the sew- 
age innocuous. Should the water course be one which 
supplies drinking-water to cities or towns, located 
below the hospital, the discharge of sewage into it is 
generally, or else should be, prohibited by State laws 
or by the State Board of Health. Where it is never- 
theless attempted, it will generally lead to serious 
trouble or litigation, arising from the increasing pol- 
lution of the stream. 

It i§, therefore, best to prepare from the start some 
plan whereby the sewage can be purified. All plans 
for the simple straining of sewage, or for subsidence in 
sewage-tanks or large cesspools, should be discounten- 
anced, for in both cases only the coarser, suspended 
impurities are held back, leaving the sewage of much * 
too foul a character to be discharged into any stream. 

As a rule, it will be best, where sufficient hospital 
land at suitable elevation can be obtained, to apply 
the sewage to the soil, and to effect its purification by 
irrigation on, or by filtration through, land. Very 



lo SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

satisfactory results may also be obtained by intermit- 
tent filtration through artificially-prepared sand and 
gravel filter-beds. 

In some cases it may become necessary to use pumps 
to lift the sewage on to land suitable for sewage farming. 
The purification of sewage is accomplished either by 
broad irrigation, or by subsurface disposal or by 
intermittent downward filtration, the choice of the 
system depending upon the available area of land 
and the proximity of the same to the hospital buildings. 

The land selected for sewage disposal should be 
either naturally porous or artificially under-drained. 
The sewage farm should also be as remote as possible 
from the source of water supply, if this is a local one. 
It is generally advisable to intercept all solid matters, 
papers, rags, etc., either by a straining-chamber or by 
an intercepting tank, both of which will need almost 
daily attention and cleaning. This is particularly 
necessary in the case of subsurface irrigation, for 
otherwise the small absorption tiles, through which the 
sewage is distributed, will soon clog up and cause the 
sewage to break up on the surface. Intermittent appli- 
cation of sewage to the soil is essential, otherwise the 
ground may become saturated and swampy. 

Whatever the system of sewage disposal selected, 
its distribution on the land and the management of 
the sewage strainer and flush-tank require intelligent 
attention, for without it the result is almost sure to 
be a failure, which, owing to the non-acquaintance 
with the essential requirements of the system, is only 
too apt to be attributed to faults in the system of disposal. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. il 

There are cases where the area of land available for 
sewage disposal is rather small. It may, then, be ad- 
visable to combine a system of chemical precipitation 
with subsequent sewage utilization on land. Where no 
land at all is available, or where suitable land is held 
by the owners at too high a price, it may be necessary 
to purify the sewage by a chemical process, or by a 
process of aeration, by biological methods in septic 
tanks and in contact filter-beds, or finally by an electrical 
purifying process. The chemical and electrical methods 
will be generally found more expensive in first cost 
and in maintenance and more difficult in management, 
than a system of disposal by application on land. On 
the other hand, biological processes may in many in- 
stances prove to be more economical, both in first cost 
and in management, than land treatment. 

A crude method, which is unfortunately too often 
resorted to, where no sewer and no large water course 
are available for the discharge of the hospital sewage, is 
to lead the sewage to large cesspools, constructed with 
loose sides and open bottom, from which the sewage 
is permitted to escape into the lower strata of the 
soil. This method of disposal cannot be approved 
from a sanitary point of view, as it involves a long 
storage of putrescible matter, and leads to a pollution 
and defilement of the soil, and also quite often to the 
contamination of springs or wells. A leaching cesspool 
is a sanitary abomination, and it cannot for a moment 
be considered an attempt even of solving the difficult 
question of the disposal of sewage. 
V Privy-vaults should likewise never be used for hos- 



12 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

pitals. Where outdoor conveniences are required, 
earth-closets should be erected. If not located too 
near the buildings, these will be found unobjectionable 
and easily managed, and the enriched dry earth forms 
a valuable manure for use on the hospital farm. Jt 
must, however, be remembered that such earth-closets 
require daily attention, and emptying and cleaning 
at frequent intervals.* 

3. Water Supply. — Water supply, and sewerage are 
closely allied together. No hospital, having a general 
system of water supply, should be without a sewerage 
system, and on the other hand, every hospital provided 
with sewerage facilities requires an abundant water 
supply to secure the flushing out of the plumbing fix- 
tures, waste-pipes, and sewers. Where only one of 
the systems is provided, serious trouble is sure to 
result. 

An abundant supply of good and pure water is a 
prime necessity. More water is required for hospital 
buildings than for other institutions, in order to insure 
the fastidious cleanliness which I have characterized as 
one of the chief requirements of such buildings. Not 
only must provision be made for the large volumes 
of water required for personal cleanliness, for bathing, 
scrubbing, for use in the large laundry, and in the 
boiler-house, but a large surplus of water, stored under 
a sufficient pressure, is required for fire protection pur- 
poses. 

* See the author's book, "The Sanitation, Water Supply, and 
Sewage Disposal of Country Houses." D. Van Nostrand Co. 
1907. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 13 

In the case of city hospitals, a pubKc supply is gen- 
erally available, and arrangements can usually be 
made for a large supply main for the institution, 
which main should be not less than 6 inches in diam- 
eter. Unless the city is supplied from a private watei 
company, water is generally delivered to hospitals, 
the same as to other charitable institutions, free of 
charge. An unstinted use of this important element 
throughout the hospital is thus secured. But isolated 
hospitals located away from the densely-populated 
centres of cities, village hospitals, and hospitals for 
insane, usually have to provide a private and inde- 
pendent water system. In arranging and designing 
such a system of water supply the following are points 
of importance, which should be taken into considera- 
tion.* 

First, concerning the quantity to be provided, this 
should be very large and ample. Fifty gallons per 
head per day should be regarded as a minimum sup- 
ply. In many hospitals a much larger quantity is 
consumed per day, and in some of the State hospitals 
for insane patients the average daily quantity exceeds 
200 gallons per day, which is partly explained by the 
lavish use of water for bathing the patients, and partly 
by the use of automatic flushing arrangements for the 
water-closets and urinals in the insane wards. Where 
water is pumped, it is desirable that the supply be 
controlled and the waste checked as far as possible, to 



* See also the author's book, "The Sanitation, Water Supply, 
and Sewage Disposal of Country Houses." 



14 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

reduce the annual expense for the fuel used in pump- 
ing, a matter to which far too little attention is gen- 
erally paid. 

The quality of the water supplied to a hospital should 
be pure, suitable for all purposes, and above the slight- 
est suspicion of contamination. Before determining 
upon a source of supply, which appears to be favorable 
in all other respects, it is necessary to make a thorough 
examination of the water. This involves a chemical 
quantitative analysis, to determine vegetable and ani- 
mal impurities; a microscopical examination; a bio- 
logical analysis to determine the number of bacteria 
in the water and the presence or absence of any disease 
germs; and finally, a sanitary inspection of the source 
of supply and its surroundings. 

In the case of springs and wells, the inspection may 
be confined to the immediate surroundings of the same, 
but in the case of surface-waters, impounded by stor- 
age dams, the entire water-shed should be visited and 
all sources of soil or water pollution carefully studied 
to ascertain if they can be eliminated. Where water 
is to be drawn from rivers or flowing water-courses, 
both banks of the stream, for quite a distance above 
the point of the proposed intake of water, should be 
examined for possible sources of pollution, such as 
sewers, drains, industrial wastes, etc. As soon as a 
source of supply is determined upon, the most strin- 
gent measures should be taken to avoid entirely all 
subsequent pollution. 

It is likewise important that the water should be 
delivered to the buildings under a good pressure, not 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 15 

only because this insures a better supply and a con- 
stant head on the upper floors, but also on account 
of the requirements of fire protection to the hospital. 
The pressure should be ample to give a good fire stream 
in the attic of the buildings. If such pressure cannot 
be secured otherwise, it is necessary to provide storage- 
tanks at high elevations, generally in tank-towers form- 
ing part of the building, or else in outside elevated 
tanks to which the water must be pumped, or finally 
by means of pressure tanks located underground or 
in the cellars of buildings. 

The source of water supply may be a spring cropping 
out from the rocks, either at an elevation much higher 
than the hospital, or perhaps located at a lower level, 
in which case a pumping-station must be erected. It 
is important to ascertain by gaugings the yield of 
springs during a long-continued period of drought, for 
many springs are liable at such times to flow a much 
smaller volume, or to dry up altogether. 

A single well, or a series of wells, may constitute 
the supply, and the wells may be either shallow or 
surface wells, or else deep wells, or, finally, flowing 
(so-called artesian) wells. It may be said, generally, 
that shallow wells are undesirable as being too liable 
to pollution from surface drainage or by soakage from 
privies or cesspools. Deep wells, while safer from pol- 
lution, may not yield water fit for all uses; indeed, 
the water is often too hard, i.e., highly charged with 
mineral salts and not suitable for boiler or laundry 
use. Heavy continued pumping from deep wells often 
causes their subsequent pollution by the lowering of. 



i6 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

the water level and the gradual drawing upon the 
underground sheets of water at further distances. 

Again, water may be drawn from a lake, pond, or 
sheet of water, fed either from surface water, or more 
often from subterranean springs. Sometimes, water is 
pumped to a hospital from a river or creek and purified 
by filtration, or else an artificial storage-reservoir is 
formed in a drainage district by throwing a dam across 
the lower end of the valley, thereby collecting or '* im- 
pounding" the water from the drainage area or water- 
shed. This latter must be free from all pollution from 
sewage or field manure, and the bottom of the reser- 
voir should be thoroughly cleaned from all dead vegeta- 
tion. Finally, water suitable for many purposes, can 
be obtained, where other sources are unavailable, by 
collecting the rain-water falling from the roofs of the 
buildings in underground tanks or rain-water cisterns. 
As a rule, however, the quantity so gathered would 
fall far short of the demands of a hospital. 

Whatever the source selected may be, an intimate 
knowledge of hydraulic engineering is required to avoid 
a mistake in the choice. Each source of supply should 
be judged as to its character by making the examina- 
tions and analyses aforementioned. The special points, 
in addition to general wholesomeness, to be looked into 
are the hardness of the water, which determines its 
availability for the steam-boilers and in the laundry, 
and also the possible action of some waters on metals 
like lead or iron, for this may have a bearing upon the 
material chosen for the service-pipes and for the water- 
tanks. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 1 7 

Regarding the manner in which water is supplied 
to a hospital, we may distinguish between a gravity 
supply and a supply by .pumping. The former is, of 
course, much to be preferred on account of economy 
in management, provided the pressure is ample to 
insure fire protection. 

Where pumping is required, we have four systems 
which I name in the order of their relative superiority, 
viz: Pumping to an elevated reservoir; pumping into 
closed water-pressure tanks in conjunction with air 
pressure tanks and air compressors; pumping the 
water into a stand pipe or an elevated tank; or finally 
pumping directly into the water mains. The topog- 
raphy of the hospital grounds generally determines 
the question whether a reservoir or a stand-pipe are 
preferable. Where sufficiently elevated ground can- 
not be found upon which to build a reservoir, an ele- 
vated tank or a stand-pipe may be used, or else a pres- 
sure-tank system. A stand-pipe is more economical in 
first cost than a reservoir, particularly if the latter is 
to be a covered reservoir, which has some advantages 
over the open reservoirs. Pumping directly into the 
mains cannot be considered as good as any of the 
other systems named, for it has the great drawback of 
providing no surplus storage of water available in case 
of fire, though this latter drawback also applies in part 
to stand-pipes. 

The water supply for a hospital must frequently be 
purified on a large scale before it is suitable for use. 
This may be done either in large sand-filter basins or 
else by mechanical filter-plants. Of all methods of fil- 



l8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

tering water on a large scale^ sand filtration as prac- 
ticed in many lEuropean water-works is undoubtedly 
the best, though it is slow in action and expensive in 
operation. Good results may also be obtained by 
using pressure or mechanical filter plants, which filter 
the water largely by straining and often secure a per- 
fectly bright and clear effluent by the addition of alum, 
causing a chemical precipitation and purification. If 
alum is used, however, care should be exercised not to 
use too large a proportion of the same, for this would 
result in some free alum appearing in the filtered water 
and possibly rendering the same injurious to health, 
or, at least, making the same unfit foi* use in the laun- 
dry, by reason of the rusting of the water mains, or 
unfit for use in the steam-boilers, owing to the danger 
of the formation of boiler incrustations. All filtration 
plants should be arranged with a view of easy cleaning 
of the filter plant, otherwise the filters may soon become 
worthless. , 

The drinking water of a hospital should always be 
filtered by means of one of the different household 
filters in candle form, consisting of porcelain or infusorial 
earth, such as the Chamberlain-Pasteur filter or the 
Berkefeld filter, which latter, according to recent inves- 
tigations, is not quite so slow in action as the former, 
and bids fair to take front rank among germ-proof 
drinking-water filters. The filtering material used in 
both filters named should be cleansed daily by brush- 
ing and should be sterilized from time to time to attain 
good results and to maintain a germ-proof condition 
of the filter. Unless this is done with regularity, the 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 19 

boiling of impure water is better than any system of 
household filtration. 

When rain-water is stored and collected in cisterns, 
these are usually built underground outside of the 
building; they must be built perfectly water-tight, 
and all danger of contamination of the cistern water 
must be avoided. The overflow of a cistern should 
never be connected with a sewer or drain for foul water, 
but may be connected with the land drains, or else a 
special pipe should be carried and discharged on the 
surface or into some ditch or road gutter. The outlet 
should have a strainer to protect the pipe from mice 
and other animals. The cistern should be covered 
and be well ventilated. It must be easy of access and 
frequently cleaned out. If possible, reversible rain- 
water leader connections should be used, to throw away 
the first washing from roofs which are apt to be im- 
pure, or else a small filtering device can readily be 
attached to a cistern to intercept leaves, soot, and 
other dirt from the roofs. 

Except in cases where a high pressure of water is 
carried in the mains, hospital buildings require large 
water-tanks. These are placed either on steel or iron 
tower structures, or else in the highest part of the 
building itself. 

House service-tanks should likewise be constructed 
with a view of preventing any pollution of the water. 
They should be built of boiler iron, of slate, or of wood, 
either rectangular or circular in shape. Smaller tanks 
are built of wood, lined with tinned copper. Lead tank 
linings are objectionable on account of the danger of 



20 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

lead-poisoning, and galvanized iron water-tanks are 
unsafe for similar reasons. House tanks should be 
provided with covers to exclude dirt and dust, they 
should have ventilation to the outer air, and means 
for frequent emptying and cleaning, and the covers 
should be arranged with hinged trap-doors to give 
access to the tank for inspection. They must be so 
located as to prevent all possibility of any water con- 
tamination by gases from soil-pipes or odors from 
plumbing fixtures; the tanks and pipes should also be 
protected against frost. The overflow pipes from house 
tanks should discharge into the roof gutter, or else 
deliver over a trapped and water-supplied sink in the 
basement. Never should an overflow from a water 
tank be connected with a soil-pipe or sewer. 

From the stand-pipe or the pressure reservoir the 
water is conducted to the hospital buildings through 
lines of distribution-pipes, which are laid in the ground 
at such a depth that the possibility of freezing is ex- 
cluded. Mains generally consist of cast-iron pipes, of 
suitable thickness, laid with well-caulked joints, with 
the necessary fittings or "specials," and provided with 
gate valves to control the flow of water through mains 
and laterals, also with branches to outside fire hydrants. 
Water mains should be of ample diameter to secure a 
full supply to the buildings, and for fire protection 
they should not be smaller than four, or better even, 
six inches in diameter. In order to prevent stagna- 
tion of water in the mains, and to insure a supply in 
case of the bursting of a water-pipe, it is preferable 
to arrange the distribution system on the '/circula- 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 21 

ting plan," wherein all dead ends of piping are 
avoided. 

The service-pipes in a hospital may be either lead or 
iron pipes, the 'latter generally made galvanized to 
prevent rust. Certain waters have a detrimental action 
upon galvanized pipes, but as a rule such pipes can 
safely be used. They are conveniently put up and 
run, and for hospitals for insane in particular they 
are preferable to lead pipes, as not being so liable to 
be injured by blows or other malicious interfer- 
ence. 

Where water is pumped, the pumping plant should 
be designed with skill and due regard to economy and 
management. Pumps should always be provided in 
duplicate to guard against a water famine, which in 
a hospital would be very disastrous in case of a break- 
down of the machinery. Unless the gravity supply 
insures a strong fire pressure, it is desirable to provide 
and fit up in the pump house a special fire pump, which 
may be either a rotary pump or else a direct-acting 
steam pump. Where electric currents are available 
for power purposes, the pumps are often run by elec- 
tricity instead of steam. 

4. Plumbing in General. — Having now discussed the 
general topics of outside water supply, the sewerage 
of a hospital and the disposal of the sewage, and de- 
termined how pure water may be supplied for use, 
and how the same water, after use, may be promptly 
removed together with all its organic impurities and 
dejecta from the persons, and how it can be made 
innocuous before discharge into a stream, I will next 



22 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

consider the inside plumbing apparatus and plumbing- 
pipe system adapted for hospitals. 

Plumbing and house drainage, as applied to hos- 
pitals, are governed by the same general rules and 
requirements enforced in other kinds of . buildings, and 
it is therefore necessary to describe but briefly the 
chief general features. A certain number of points of 
more special application will be noticed afterwards. 

In general, I may say that the arrangement of the 
plumbing should be as simple and direct as practicable. 
Where the buildings are two stories or more in height, 
the aim of the architect in designing the floor plans 
should be to locate the plumbing in vertical groups, in 
order to reduce the number of pipe lines to a minimum. 
Horizontal branches should likewise be avoided as 
much as possible on account of the difficulty of giving 
a sufficient fall to the waste-pipes. 

The plumbing for hospital wards is best located in 
an annex pavilion, cut off from the ward by a well- 
ventilated lobby or short corridor. Rooms which con- 
tain plumbing, should never be entered directly from 
the wards, and this is of paramount importance in 
the case of surgical wards. The foregoing remarks 
need not apply to the plumbing of the administration 
building or that of the kitchen, pantry, and laundry. 

The plumbing system, which often for convenience's 
sake may be subdivided into several divisions, consists 
of vertical lines of soil- and waste-pipes. In the base- 
ment or the cellar, as the case may be, all these lines 
are gathered and connected into lateral drains, which 
again join to form main drain lines, or house sewers, 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 2^ 

as they are more appropriately called. Wherever prac- 
ticable, drains should be kept above the cellar floor 
and supported by brick piers, or hung from beams by 
pipe-hangers or clamps. A hospital building will have 
one or several lines of house sewers, according to its 
size and extent. It is desirable to restrict the size of 
the largest house sewer within the building to six inches 
in diameter. Each line of house sewer should have a 
running or main trap, and each trap should have a 
fresh-air inlet on the house side of said trap, extended 
to a point outdoors, well remote from windows and 
from fresh-air ducts of the heating apparatus. It is 
best to extend the fresh-air pipe two feet above grade, 
and to finish it with a quarter bend covered as a pro- 
tection against obstructions with a brass air inlet grating. 
For city hospitals, it may be difficult to find a suitable 
place for the air inlet, but I warn against locating it 
in a brick box with iron grating set flush in the side- 
walk near the curb, as the gratings invariably become 
obstructed with mud and dirt, and in winter with 
snow and ice. The main traps of all house sewers should 
have cleanouts and should be kept accessible by man- 
holes built around them. Where a hospital is com- 
posed of a group of buildings, I hold it is preferable, 
in order to isolate one building from the other, to 
place a running trap on the line of house sewer for 
each of the buildings. 

All soil and waste lines should be carried vertically 
upward and be extended at least the full size through 
the roof for ventilation, all pipes smaller than 4 inches 
being increased to this size at the roof, to prevent 



24 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

their becoming closed up in winter time by hoar- 
frost. 

Soil^, waste-, or vent-pipes should never be run to 
and terminate in brick flues, as the bricks are porous 
and liable to absorb sewer air and to retain disease 
germs. 

Where deviations from the vertical line must neces- 
sarily be made, the offsets of vent lines and vent ex- 
tensions above the highest fixtures should always be 
made under an angle of at least 45 degrees from the 
horizontal line in order to prevent any rust from lodging 
in the pipe and thus obstructing the free vent outlet 
at the roof. 

All plumbing in a hospital building should be sepa- 
rately trapped, and the traps should be set close to 
the fixtures. Traps should be arranged in such a way 
that they can by no possibility lose their water seal 
either from self-siphonage, or from suction caused by 
discharge of other fixtures on the same line, or by 
evaporation, or by back-pressure. One method of 
accomplishing this end is to run vertical lines of air- 
or vent-pipes and to attach branches from them to 
the highest point of each and every trap. Practically, 
this prevents siphonage in nearly all cases, but a great 
complication of the system and the possibility of danger- 
ous by-passes are thereby created. The same object 
can, without doubt, be attained by simpler means, 
consisting in using traps with deep water-seal for water- 
closets, and so-called non-siphoning water-seal (not 
mechanical) traps under other fixtures, where the same 
are located within 4 or 5 feet from a well- ventilated line 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 25 

of soil- or waste-pipe. Long branch wastes must in 
all cases be extended separately up to the roof, but 
the traps under the branches do not need the "back- 
air pipe." I call the improved system the "one-pipe 
system" to distinguish it from the prevalent "two- 
pipe system," which is, in my judgment, unnecessarily 
complicated and much more expensive. 

The new method, if judiciously applied, renders a 
plumbing system fully as safe as the old-fashioned and 
cumbersome method. 

Going a step further, we may apply this rule of utmost 
possible simplicity to all parts of the plumbing work. 
Another axiom to be borne in mind is to make all parts 
of the plumbing system accessible for inspection and 
repairs. Mechanical appliances liable to get out of 
order should be avoided. Mechanical traps in par- 
ticular cannot be approved except where there is only 
clean water flowing through the waste-pipes. Water- 
closets with mechanical appliances are an abomination 
and should never be tolerated. 

A further modern maxim, of particular importance in 
the case of hospital buildings, is to avoid all wood- 
work around plumbing fixtures, to abolish pipe-casings 
and wooden enclosures to fixtures. All plumbing in 
a hospital should be exposed plumbing. Every line 
of pipe, whether soil, waste, vent, or supply line, 
shoald stand free from the walls. I cannot lay suffi- 
cient stress upon the importance of this method of con- 
struction. Water service-pipes should not be put in 
walls or horizontally between floors, because if so 
placed, hidden leakages of water will cause more dam- 



26 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

age to decorated walls and ceilings, and also because 
pipes in walls, if these are outside walls, are very liable 
to freeze in cold weather and to cause damage by burst- 
ing. I likewise urge doing away entirely with all wall 
recesses or pipe-casings for soil- or vent-pipes, because 
in case of the joints leaking water or sewer air, it is 
difficult or impossible to reach the pipes to detect the 
leak. I also disapprove of pipe casings in front of 
wall recesses, because the enclosed spaces constitute 
very undesirable runways for mice, rats, and roaches, 
and form breeding-places for vermin. Whoever has 
seen the untidy, nay, sometimes filthy condition of the 
interior of such pipe-casings, and compared the same 
with a good example of modern exposed work, will 
never want to return to the old-fashioned methods 
of doing plumbing work. Another objection to the 
pipe recesses is that they act as convenient channels 
or flues for carrying foul odors from the cellar or lower 
floors of a building to the upper floors. 

There is absolutely no good reason why plumbing- 
pipes should not be kept in sight in toilet-rooms, and 
in pantries and through closets. Open pipes can always 
be examined and tested, and, if required, tightened in 
the joints or repaired in case of breaks. Where they 
pass through floors and ceilings, the openings can be 
efficiently closed with plaster, and thus no inviting 
corners or spaces are left for waterbugs and vermin. 
It should also be noted that where plumbing work re- 
mains exposed to the light, the mechanic exercises 
greater care in doing his work, therefore the general 
quality of the 'work will be improved. Fortunately, 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 27 

the prejudice of architects and owners against open 
plumbing work has been overcome, and a new era in 
house sanitation has therewith begun. 

I must not omit mentioning that, where this can be 
avoided, no plumbing-pipes connected to the sewer 
system should pass through the wards or through the 
operating-rooms of a hospital. • 

With open plumbing work, perfect cleanliness is 
much more readily maintained, and it is likewise pos- 
sible to exert more vigilance in regard to the plumbing 
fixtures and their condition. 

Elaborate display and efforts to make the plumbing 
work ornamental, possibly at the expense of simplicity 
and substantial workmanship, are evidently out of 
place in the ward plumbing of hospitals. The same is 
true of nickel-plated brass piping. It is a mistake to 
suppose that exposed plumbing cannot be installed 
without the use of nickel-plated brass pipe. Lead and 
iron pipes, and even brass pipes and fittings left rough 
outside, can be made to look well by bronzing with 
aluminum bronze or by enamel painting. 

5. Some Plumbing Details. — Before discussing hos- 
pital plumbing fixtures, I must consider some further 
details of plumbing work, such as the material, sizes, 
and arrangement of pipes, and I shall try to give this 
information in as condensed form as possible. 

No earthen pipes should be used anywhere within 
the walls of a hospital. From a point about ten feet 
outside of the foundation walls, the house sewers should 
consist of extra heavy cast-iron pipes. Wherever pipes 
are carried above the cellar floor, heavy wrougtit-iron 



28 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

pipes may be used. The soil, waste, and vent-pipes 
may be either extra heavy cast iron, or else heavy 
wrought-iron pipes. The former pipes are jointed with 
lead-caulked joints, whereas wrought-iron pipes are 
put together with screw joints. Screw joints are su- 
perior to caulked joints, being more durable and per- 
manently tight. For joints in cast-iron pipes a new 
material has been put forth recently, consisting of a 
mixture of steel and iron filings made into a paste which 
hardens quickly and becomes water-tight. This mate- 
rial, called "Smooth on Joints" is the invention of a 
practical chemist who has made exhaustive tests of it 
before putting it on the market. I have had the same 
applied to several lines of cast-iron pipe and found it 
to be quite tight under the water-pressure test. There 
is not, however, sufficient experience on hand regarding 
its permanency and durability. Should it prove to 
remain tight, it would certainly be a great improvement 
over the ordinary caulked joint, and not the least 
advantage of the new material would be that it does 
away with the necessity of a plumber's furnace for 
melting the lead. It would thus greatly reduce the 
fire risk in non-fireproof buildings during construction. 
Wrought-iron soil-pipe systems are constructed of 
pipes made rustless, either by galvanizing, or by an 
asphalting process. Plain, so-called black iron pipes 
should never be used for house drainage purposes. For 
vent lines it is better to use galvanized pipe, as these 
are less liable to rust than asphalted pipes. For soil- 
pipes I prefer the latter on account of their greater 
smoothness. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 29 

The fittings for wrought-iron pipes should not be 
the ordinary steam-fittings, but they • should be the 
recessed or drainage fittings, which were introduced 
years ago by the Durham House Drainage Company. 

Soil-pipes should be four or five inches in diameter, 
the former size being sufficient for fixtures in the admin- 
istration building and also for the wards, except where 
there is a very large number of fixtures on the line. 
In hospitals for insane, however, I prefer to use five- 
inch soil-pipes owing to the somewhat greater danger 
of the soil-pipes becoming stopped up by a wrongful 
use of the water-closets. Waste-pipes are made either 
two or three inches in diameter, this depending upon 
the character and number of fixtures placed on the 
line. Slop-sinks, for instance, require three-inch waste- 
pipes. Hospital bath-tubs and spray-baths require 
larger waste-pipes than used in private houses in order 
to empty quickly. 

As regards the inclination to be given to the house 
sewers and horizontal waste-pipes, one-quarter of an 
inch is the minimum fall permissible. I prefer to give 
to four-inch lines a fall of one-half inch to the foot, 
and smaller waste-pipes should have an even greater fall. 

Connections of branch waste-pipes with the main 
vertical lines are made with Y-branches or else with 
T-Y branches, but the latter fittings should not be used 
in horizontal lines. Lead pipe should only be used for 
the water-closet connections and for short waste-pipes. 
In connecting the same with iron pipes, drawn brass 
ferrules or screw nipples should be used, which must 
be bell-shaped and extra heavy. 



30 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Brass floor-plates should always be used for porce- 
lain water-closets having the trap above the floor, in 
order to insure a tight floor joint. 

Where brass pipe is used for waste- or vent-pipe, it 
should be seamless drawn brass tubing of iron pipe 
gauge, and all connections should be screwed joints. 
No slip or coupling should be permitted on waste- 
or vent-pipes. 

Clean-outs should be placed in sufficient number on 
the line of the drains and at junctions, bends, and 
traps, and made accessible. They should be closed 
with extra heavy brass screw-caps, with thick flanges, 
and with strong square or hexagon nuts. To insure a 
tight joint, there should be at least six engaging threads. 

Roof joints should be made with copper or sheet- 
lead flashings. In case some of the rain-water con- 
ductors are connected for special reasons with the 
sewer system, they must be properly trapped. Inside 
leaders should be of extra heavy cast iron or else of 
heavy screw-jointed wrought -iron pipe; outside leaders 
may consist of sheet metal. 

No trap should be placed at the foot of any vertical 
line of soil or waste-pipe. All such lines should be 
fully ventilated by extensions through the roof. Where 
back-air pipes are used, I prefer extending them to 
the roofs separately. 

The pipes on the roofs should remain fully exposed, 
and vent caps or return bends and cowls should not 
be used. Pipes should be kept away from dormer 
windows, also from flues and ventilating skylights. 
Pipes coming through lower roofs of extensions must 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 31 

be extended to the main and higher roof whenever they 
open too close to windows. 

All vertical vent lines should be dripped at the 
bottom of the line and care should be taken, where 
traps are backaired, to enter the branch vent into 
the main line above the overflow point of the fixture, 
so that the vent cannot act as waste when the latter 
should become stopped up. 

Mason's traps, D-traps, bell-traps, pot-, drum-, or 
bottle-traps should not be used;, likewise should mechan- 
ical traps, with flap-valves, gravity balls, rubber float- 
ing balls, mercury seals, etc., be avoided. Traps having 
interior dividing partitions forming the trap-seal are 
objectionable as being liable to have sandholes in the 
cast partitions, which would render the seal inefficient. 

All traps should have trap or cleaning-screws, which 
must be arranged so as to be below the water-line in 
the trap, for if on the sewer side of the trap-seal, they 
may leak sewer air when not tightly closed. Lead 
traps should be extra heavy and of the same weight 
as lead waste-pipes. Brass traps must be of iron pipe 
size and should be manufactured perfectly smooth on 
the inside, for roughness of the interior of a trap tends 
to stoppages. 

Every fixture should be trapped separately. 

The sizes of traps for fixtures should be as follows: 
for water-closets 3^ or 4 inches, for slop-sinks, shower- 
and needle-baths, and floor drains 3 inches, for kitchen 
and other large sinks and for wash-tubs and spray- 
baths, 2 inches, for pantry and small sinks, for wash- 
basins, etc., i^ inches. Bath-tubs should have li or 



32 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

2-mch traps, the latter emptying the fixture more 
rapidly. Urinals are usually trapped by 2-inch traps, 
though i^ inches would seem to be ample in all cases. 
Traps located under the cellar floor should be made 
accessible by manholes. 

In toilet-rooms floor drains are often desirable, and 
if used should be very securely trapped. Wherever 
possible, floor drains should not be connected with the 
sewer system. They, as well as cellar floor drains, may 
connect with the land drains. 

No exhaust steam or steam-pipe should be con- 
nected with a sewer or soil-pipe, but they should dis- 
charge into a condensing and blow-off tank, with outlet- 
pipe connected to the sewer outside the house-trap. 

Pan-, valve-, and plunger-closets should never be 
used. All water-closet .bowls should have flushing 
rims. Water-closets having traps located below the 
floor, should have either heavy lead traps or else iron 
traps which must be enameled on the inside. Overflow 
pipes of water-closet cisterns should discharge into 
the water-closet bowl. Overflow-pipes of other fix- 
tures should connect with the waste-pipes on the 
house side of the trap, or else below the water line. 

Local vent-pipes for plumbing fixtures complicate the 
arrangement and are not necessary where a good ven- 
tilation of the room has been otherwise arranged for. 

Water-pipes for plumbing fixtures should never be 
run on outside walls or in exposed places where they 
would be liable to freeze. 

A final correct plan of the sewer- and drain-pipe 
system, as constructed, should be drawn and kept on 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 33 

file for reference, or else all changes made during con- 
struction should be noted on the original plans of the 
work. 

All plumbing systems should be tested, first, by the 
water-pressure test when the "rough" work is in 
place, including the water-closet branches and the 
branches to fixtures; second, by a smoke test when the 
water has been turned on at all the pipes and fixtures. 

6. Subdivision of Hospital Buildings. — In every 
kind of hospital there are certain sub -divisions, which 
in the case of the larger and most completely fitted 
institutions are generally located in separate buildings. 
The sub-divisions comprise: first, the hospital wards 
with their adjoining service-rooms, such as baths, 
lavatories, water-closets, broom-closets, and rooms for 
the nurses in charge of the wards; the administration 
building with rooms and offices for the superintendent, 
the steward, and the medical staff; the nurses' sleeping 
apartments, toilet and bath-rooms, and nurses' dining- 
rooms; the matron's quarters; the operating-rooms 
with rooms for the appurtenances belonging thereto; 
the drug store or dispensary; the working department 
of the hospital, consisting of kitchen, scullery, pantries, 
and serving-rooms, and dining-rooms for the help; the 
bakery and laundry; rooms for male and female help; 
the boiler- and engine-room, the dynamo- and pump- 
rooms, the disinfecting-room or station, the mortuary, 
ice-house and garbage crematory, and sometimes a 
stable. All these departments must be fitted up with 
more or less plumbing and drainage appliances. In 
the following each of these will be briefly considered. 



34 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

7. Water-closet Rooms and Fixtures for Hospital 
Wards. — The room containing the ward water-closets 
should be placed convenient to the ward, but not 
immediately adjoining the same. It should be a room 
by itself and should not contain the lavatories or the 
baths. It should contain only the water-closets, the 
urinals, and the slop-sinks. It is better to provide 
separate water-closets for nurses and attendants. 

The number of closets to be provided for a ward 
depends upon the size of the ward. It is usual to 
estimate one closet for each 10 patients, though this num- 
ber may be slightly varied in the case of insane patients, 
and on the women's side of the hospital. 

To promote cleanliness, all parts of the toilet-room 
should be amply lighted, and structural materials 
should be used for the walls, floors, ceilings, partitions, 
and fixtures which are non-absorptive and permit of 
easy cleaning. All sharp corners, mouldings and cor- 
nices which harbor dirt and dust should be done away 
with. Woodwork is very absorbent and should not 
be used at all for the wainscoting of the room, or for 
partitions. Common plaster, paint, and varnish also 
absorb organic impurities and cannot be approved. 

The floor should be tiled with unglazed encaustic tiles, 
or with large slabs of marble or slate; mosaic tile floors 
may also be used. The floor is sometimes arranged 
so as to pitch to one point, and a floor cesspool and 
drain is provided, so as to permit the washing of the 
entire room with a hose. 

The walls to a height of at least six or seven feet 
should be lined with glazed tiles, or still better, with 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 35 

large slabs of marble, slate or soapstone. The ceiling 
is either arched with brick arches or made of sheet 
metal painted with enamel paint. The partitions between 
the fixtures should also be of marble, slate, or of opaque 
glass. The suggestion to used hammered or annealed 
glass for wall linings or partitions dates back from 1875, 
but they have only recently been manufactured and 
used. It is preferable not to have the partitions reach 
to the floor, but to raise them about eight or ten inches, 
because this facilitates the cleaning of the floor. In 
the same way, it is better not to extend the partitions 
to the rear wall, but to stop the same about two inches 
from the wall, so as to be able to reach behind, also 
to avoid the sharp corners between partitions and wall 
slabs, which easily accumulate dirt and are difficult to 
keep clean. 

Sharp corners should also be avoided between the 
wall lining and the floor, by rounding off the corners 
or using special round mouldings of tile or marble. 
In the case of hospitals for insane, it is usual to omit 
the partitions between the seats. The closet doors are 
also often omitted where control of the patients is 
necessary. Where doors are used, they should be 
short, light flap doors not reaching to the floor, and 
preferably hinged so that they will stand open, except 
when the seat is occupied. 

Water-closet fixtures, to be suitable for hospitals, 
should be of white earthenware, or where greater 
strength is required or a rough usage is expected, as 
in the case of hospitals for the insane, they should be 
made of heavy glazed fire-clay or stoneware. Iron 



36 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

water-closets are not serviceable in the long run; the 
plain iron closets never look clean and the enameled- 
iron bowls, though somewhat better, soon lose the enamel 
lining by chipping and then they rust rapidly. The 
only suitable and sanitary types are the pedestal wash- 
down and the siphon- jet closets, but the latter are 
more liable to stoppage and are therefore also unsuit- 
able, especially so for closets to be used for insane 
patients. All ornamentation of the closet bowl is of 
course entirely out of question in a hospital. Only the 
plain white fixtures should be used. The only wood- 
work should be the seat, which must not be a full seat 
but an open round hardwood polished seat, attached 
to the rear of the closet bowl by hinges, so that it may 
be turned up to expose the bowl for cleaning. For the 
sake .of cleanliness a form of water-closet bowl offers 
advantages for hospitals, in which the front of the 
wooden seat is cut out, and a vertical projection formed 
in the front part of the top of bowl, which acts also as 
a urine shield, and prevents the latter from being spilled 
over at the front of the closet. Of late years a modi- 
fied type of closet has been used to some extent in 
hospitals for insane, which dispenses with the wooden 
seat, the top of the bowl being formed in porcelain to 
serve as the seat. In the case of filthy insane patients 
these closets offer certain advantages. For quiet and 
clean patients I cannot see any objection to a plain 
wooden seat, if the latter is strongly framed and other- 
wise well made, so as not to crack or warp. The objec- 
tions to an all-porcelain seat are that it is cold; that 
no seat attachment can de used and therefore an auto- 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 37 

matic flush must be arranged which is somewhat waste- 
ful of water; and there is the further important objec- 
tion that the inside of the upper part of the closet 
bowl cannot be readily examined and cleaned. 

For general hospitals, the flushing arrangement for 
the closet may consist of the well-known chain and 
pull arrangement; for some of the insane patients it 
is better to use an automatic seat attachment flush in 
combination with either an open or a closed pressure- 
tank, or else a combination automatic and pull-tank 
may be used, for in the quieter wards it is found that 
patients do make use of the pull. The flushing-cisterns 
should be copper-lined wooden tanks, as iron tanks 
rust aud stain the closet bowl, also because they sweat 
in summer time and cause drippings from the tank to 
the floor. The flush-pipe, should be large, at least li- 
inches inside diameter, of lead, of brass, or of polished 
and rustless steel. Lead should not be used in hos- 
pitals for insane, as it is too easily dented, cut, or 
flattened. Brass flush-pipes may be polished and 
lacquered, or else they are finished in dark bronze or 
have a bluish steel finish ; they also look well if silver 
bronzed or painted with enamel paint. 

Urinals should be avoided as much as possible, and 
generally the water-closet fixture may take their place. 
If required, urinals for wards should be porcelain fix- 
tures holding water in the bowl, fastened to the marble 
wall lining, and provided with automatic flush-tank. 
If a marble floor slab is used, it should not have a waste, 
for this becomes foul from the drippings of the urine. 
In somQ general hospitals, bidets are installed gn the 



38 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

women's side, and if provided with a flush, they may 
answer as urinettes ; for insane patients such fixtures 
are not to be recommended. 

A slop-sink may properly be placed in the water- 
closet room, for it is a fixture intended to receive the 
foul discharges from bed-pans, chambers, glass urinals, 
commodes and other sick-room utensils, and used for 
the rinsing and washing of these fixtures. It must 
therefore be treated much like a water-closet, and 
should always be of a type with flushing-rim and pro- 
vided with flushing-cistern. Hot and cold water fau- 
cets should also be provided, and sometimes an upward 
jet is added for the rinsing of bed-pans, etc. 

All fixtures in ward toilet-rooms should be selected 
with a viev/ of accomplishing the most complete and 
rapid removal of all dejecta and fouled liquid wastes. 
Perfect flushing arrangements and an ample supply 
of water for flushing purposes are required. Proper 
provision should likewise be made for a perfect ven- 
tilation of the apartment, and under no circumstances 
should any movement of air take place from the toilet- 
room towards the wards. 

8. Bath-rooms for Hospital Wards. — Ward bath- 
rooms should be in convenient reach of the ward, but 
disconnected from it by a corridor, so as to exclude and 
cut off any steam vapors. The bath-rooms for patients 
should be separate from those for the nurses and at- 
tendants. The room should have plenty of light, and 
windows should have frosted, opaque or frilled glass. 
The best floor is a solid floor, made by using I-beams 
and brick arches. These may be covered either with 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 39 

concrete and cement, or with asphalt, so as to be water- 
proof. A nicer effect and appearance are gained by 
adopting a mosaic tile floor, or finishing the floor with 
large slabs of marble, or finally by using small vitreous 
tiles. Glazed tiles should never be used in a bath-room 
as they render the floor too slippery. A novel floor 
finish consists in a rubber interlocked tile floor, which 
is durable, warm to the feet, soft to walk upon, and 
perfectly sanitary, though somewhat more expensive 
than a tile floor. 

The walls of the bath-room should be finished with 
a waterproof and non-absorbent material, such as 
enameled brick, slate, or marble, to a height of at least 
6 feet. Such a room can be kept pure and clean by 
turning on a stream from a hose and washing the 
entire sides. As the ceiling is exposed to vapors of 
steam it should also be solid, either finished in hard 
plaster and painted with oil or enamel paint, or else 
the same should be constructed with sheet metal. 
The door leading to the bath-room should be made 
large to admit a patient carried on a stretcher. The 
bath-room should be well- ventilated and must be well 
heated. In some hospitals this is efficiently accom- 
plished by heating the floor of the room. 

The number of bath-tubs to be provided depends 
upon the number of patients in the ward; it is usual 
to calculate one tub for each fifteen patients; where 
two tubs are necessary, one should be a hospital tub, 
set on rubber-bound wheels, so as to be movable; it 
should not be fixedly connected to the plumbing 
pipes. The floor of the room should be given a good 



40 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

pitch to one point where a floor drain should be placed. 
The hospital tub is emptied at this point, and large 
hot and cold-water mixing-cocks should be provided 
for quickly filling the tub. 

The fixed bath-tub should stand free on all sides 
from the wall, so as to enable the nurses to reach the 
patient conveniently from any point. The tubs may 
be strong sheet-metal tubs standing free on legs and 
not having the usual wooden casing; or they may be 
porcelain-lined iron tubs ; or the more expensive, heavier 
porcelain tubs with roll rim. As a rule, enameled iron 
answers well enough as a material for tubs if care is 
only exercised in the use of the tub. The enamel is 
somewhat apt to chip off or to crack, where anything 
heavy is allowed to drop into the tub. To avoid the 
diffusion of steam- vapor in the room, mixing faucets 
for hot and cold water are used. In hospitals for in- 
sane patients, the supply- valves should be always out 
of reach of the patients to avoid accidents or intended 
suicide by scalding, or else key-valves should be used. 

Of late years, a much more effective, clean, and 
economical method of bathing the insane has been 
introduced, by means of rain- or spray-baths. In the 
state hospitals of New York State such spray-baths are 
obligatory, and tubs for patients are entirely abolished. 
The advantages of this new method have been uni- 
versally admitted and the old tubs are everywhere 
being replaced by the simpler and better spray-baths. 
In some cases a congregate bath-room is fitted up, 
which enables the simultaneous bathing of a large num- 
ber of patients. A good example, and the first one 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 41 

of a large bath-house for insane, may be seen at the 
Utica State Hospital, which was designed and installed 
by the writer. Another similar bath-house has been 
constructed under the writer's plans, specifications, 
and supervision, at the Long Island State Hospital at 
Kings Park. In many of the other hospitals each 
ward is provided with one or two spray-baths. The 
apparatus is very simple, consisting of an overhead 
inclined douche or nozzle, supplied with mixed water 
at a temperature not exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Special mixing chambers for hot and cold water are 
used, or else a new appliance, called a "Gegenstrom" 
apparatus, in which steam and water pass in opposite 
directions, the water being heated as it flows. This 
does away entirely with hot-water tanks and mixing- 
chambers.* 

Large city hospitals are sometimes provided with a 
bath-house in a separate building, wherein all kinds 
of medicated and special baths are put up, including 
sometimes Russian and Turkish baths, cabinet-vapor 
baths, baths for hydro therapeutic treatments, elec- 
trical baths, sun baths, sitz and foot baths, bidets, etc. 
For the treatment of skin diseases and of certain ail- 
ments like typhoid fever, etc., European hospitals are 
provided with so-called "permanent water-baths." In 
all bath-rooms and bath-houses special provision should 
be made for warming the change of linen for the patients. 

9. Lavatories for Hospital Wards. — A separate room 
adjoining the ward should contain the lavatories for 

* See the author's pamphlets on "The Modem Rain-bath," and 
his book "Modern Baths and Bath Houses," 



42 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

the patients. This room should be finished in much 
the same manner as the bath-room, and it should con- 
tain one wash-basin for about eight or ten patients. 
In addition, a small shallow porcelain housemaid's 
sink is often put in this room for drawing hot or cold 
water. To discuss the type of basin best adapted for 
hospitals would lead me too far; I will only mention 
that all wash-basins with secret waste- valves and hid- 
den overflow-pipes should be avoided. The entire 
arrangement should be open - and unenclosed ; there 
should be no cupboards and no wooden enclosures. 
The modern all-porcelain lavatories are particularly 
adapted for use in hospital wards, as they have no 
plaster-of -Paris joints between the bowl and the mar- 
ble slab. All basins should be quick-emptying and 
should have hot as well as cold water faucets. It is 
important that each basin should be separately trapped. 
In lavatories for insane patients, the hot-water faucets 
should have detachable key handles. 

10. Nurses' Toilet-rooms. — It is desirable that sepa- 
rate bath, lavatory, and water-closet accommodations 
be provided for the hospital nurses. While the basins 
and the bath-tub may be put in one room, a separate 
apartment should contain the water-closet. The de- 
tails of these appliances do not call for special discus- 
sion, for they do not differ essentially from those used 
in private houses. For water-closets I recommend the 
type known as the pedestal short hopper or wash- 
down closets, with polished hardwood seats and with 
cisterns operated by chain and pull. The trap should 
be of earthenware, in one piece with the bowl, and 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 43 

should have about 3 inches of water-seal. The bath- 
room should contain a tub and a spray-bath. 

In larger general hospitals, and also in the hospitals 
for the insane, a separate building is often provided 
for the nurses, containing not only bedrooms, but also, 
sitting-rooms and reading-rooms for the nurses, a lec- 
ture room for the nurses of the Training School, as 
well as toilet-rooms. 

11. Bath-rooms for the OflScers and Medical Staff. — 
In the administration building, provision should be 
made for toilet-rooms for the executive officers, for 
clerks, and for the medical staff. Likewise should 
bath-rooms be attached to the living rooms of the 
resident physician or the superintendent. The plumb- 
ing work for these should be of the same character as 
provided for in private houses. I can therefore safely 
pass these over, except that I wish to plead once more 
for the separation of the water-closet and the bath- 
room, and this for reasons which I have often set forth, 
and which should be apparent to all thoughtful per- 
sons. The water-closet most adapted for use in pri- 
vate bath-rooms is the modern siphon- jet closet, with 
deep trap-seal and with open seat attached to the 
bowl, and without back-piece or panel-board. 

12. Operating Rooms. — Every hospital has either one 
or several operating rooms, and the larger clinical hos- 
pitals are generally provided with operating theatres, 
which are fitted up with all modern requirements of 
aseptic surgery, and also contain more or less plumbing 
work. It is self-evident that the operating-rooms are 
of particular importance and require the very best 



44 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

and safest plumbing work, in order to avoid the danger 
of blood-poisoning or contagion. 

All parts of an operating-room should be so con- 
structed and fitted up as to be readily cleaned and 
made aseptic. There should be plenty of light, perfect 
ventilation, and abundant facilities for washing and 
flushing. All instruments, bandages, utensils, and ves- 
sels must be made germ-proof or sterilized. Sterilized 
water should be available for the operating surgeon 
to wash his hands with. All tables and furniture, 
like stretchers, operating-tables, instrument cabinet 
cases, immersion bowls and tables and other accessories 
should consist of white enameled wrought-iron frames 
and polished glass tops. The floor of the room should 
be tiled and provided with a floor drain for washing 
the floor. The walls and even the doors are often lined 
with large slabs of marble, slate, or Alberene stone; 
enameled face brick is often used for the walls from 
floor to ceiling. 

No soil- or waste-pipes connected with the hospital 
sewer should pass through the operating rooms. The 
plumbing fixtures located in the rooms should be dis- 
connected, i.e., should discharge with open mouth over 
a trapped basement or cellar sink provided with faucet. 
The highest character of workmanship is required at the 
fixtures in the operating-room. There should be por- 
celain sinks with glazed roll-rims, and without wood- 
work of any kind. Drain-boards, if any are required, 
should be of slate, Alberene stone, or glass. The best 
sanitary wash-stand fixtures should be used. 

Modern hospital wash-stands, which consist of glass 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 45 

bowls fitted up in connection with glass slabs, are 
now purchasable. These are generally fitted up with 
self-closing pedal supply-valves, in connection with a 
nozzle, giving either hot, cold, or mixed water. Some- 
times the basin waste-valve is similarly operated by 
a foot action. Pressure sterilizing apparatus for water 
must be provided, generally one for hot and another 
for cold water, likewise sterilizers for surgical dress- 
ings, bandages, and for surgical instruments and appli- 
ances, also buckets to receive the waste dressings, 
which are to be burned. While these are not strictly 
belonging to plumbing work, they require water and 
gas-pipe connections, drip-pipes, and also steam con- 
nections. In a convenient location near the operating- 
rooms there should be toilet-rooms, where surgeons and 
attendants can put on their operating suits and where 
they find for use wash-basins, water-closets, urinals, 
and a spray-bath. 

13. The Hospital Kitchen. — In large hospitals, the 
kitchen is always located in a separate building. In 
smaller institutions it is placed either in the basement 
or on the ground floor of a wing of the building. In 
a few cases the kitchen is placed on or near the top 
floor, the idea being to prevent cooking odors from 
pervading the other parts of the hospital. 

The hospital kitchen should be light, airy, and well 
ventilated. Floors and walls should be finished in 
non-absorbing, easily cleaned materials. The floor 
should be drained to one or several floor cesspools. A 
sufficient number of kitchen sinks of ample size should 
be provided, to draw water for the cooking operations 



46 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

and also for the cleaning, rinsing, and scouring of 
pots, kettles, and pans. The most durable sinks for 
use in the kitchen of an institution are cast-iron sinks; 
those of plain iron, painted on the outside, are un- 
doubtedly the most serviceable, although not so cleanly 



looking as enameled or porcelain sinks. With the 
rough usage which these fixtures unavoidably undergo, 
the enameled iron would soon chip off or crack. Porce- 
lain sinks, with roll-rims, are likewise liable to be 
damaged. In many institutions wooden sinks are used; 
for a few months they will be serviceable, but . they 
soon rot and become foul looking and smelling, and I 
fail to see any real merit in them other than that of 
cheapness. Sinks generally require drain-boards, which 
likewise should not be of wood. I have found slabs 
of slate or of Alberene stone to be durable and service- 
able. 

The kitchen ranges should be proportioned to the 
number of people for which cooking is to be done. In 
some cases this and other cooking apparatus are fitted 
up by the plumbers, but as a rule they are installed 
by firms making a specialty of such work. Even then 
the numerous appliances, such as steam- jacketed boil- 
ing vessels for making soup, boiling meat, vegetables 
or puddings; the tea and coffee copper urns; the gas 
or steam ovens, roasters and broilers will require water 
connections, drip-pipes for the drip-pans, and some- 
times gas connections. Steam carving and serving 
tables are also placed in the kitchen unless the pantry 
is very large, when they are sometimes located in the 
latter by preference. Inasmuch as the population of 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 47 

a hospital is liable to vary considerably, it is better 
to provide all the kitchen outfit in duplicate, so as to 
have facilities for cooking economically for a smaller 
number of persons. Adjoining tlie. kitchen there should 
be a roomy store-room for the kitchen supplies. 

14. The Scullery. — It is better to sub-divide the 
various kitchen operations in such a way that they 
may be carried out in adjoining rooms. Where the 
building permits this, it is well to have a scullery adjoin- 
ing the kitchen, in which the preparing of the veget- 
ables, the washing of potatoes, and salads, of meats 
and fruits, etc., may be done, and also the washing 
of the plates and dishes. Plenty of sinks should be 
arranged and each provided with hot and cold water 
and with drain-board. In some modern institutions 
the washing of the dishes is done in large dish-washing 
machines, which, although quite expensive, effect a 
considerable saving in manual labor. These and the 
sinks should be provided by the plumber with a large 
grease trap. I recommend to locate the grease trap 
outside of the building, because it has to be frequently 
cleaned, and this operation is by no means a pleasant 
one. The general finish of a scullery should be similar 
to that of the kitchen. 

15. The Pantry.— A pantry is always planned near 
or immediately adjoining the dining-room. It should 
contain sinks for the washing of the finer dishes, of 
the glasses, cups, and saucers from the. dining table. 
While porcelain or slate sinks are cleanly and sanitary, 
they are hardly suitable for a hospital pantry, where 
owing to the carelessness of servants too many dishes 



48 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

and glasses would be broken in them. Copper sinks 
are probably best adapted for the purpose, although 
the evil of breaking porcelain and glass is somewhat 
mitigated where rubber mats are used in porcelain 
sinks. Owing to the greasy nature of the dish-water, 
it is often necessary- to use a grease trap in connection 
with the sinks. Hot plate warmers are also put in the 
pantry, likewise germ-proof filters for the drinking- 
water used at the table, and occasionally small port- 
able refrigerators for butter, jellies, and smaller articles 
of food. It is important that the refrigerator should 
not be directly in connection with any soil-pipe or 
sewer. It should always be thoroughly disconnected 
and have an open waste or discharge over a trapped 
and water-supplied sink. 

i6. The Hospital Bakery. — In large hospitals the 
bakery is placed in a separate building, while in smaller 
institutions the baking is done in a basement room 
near the kitchen. Here bread and pastry are prepared, 
and the operations generally require several rooms, 
namely, a room for the mixing and kneading of the 
dough and making of the loafs; a room for the bake 
ovens ; a store room for the flour and another for the 
finished products. 

The plumbing work is generally, very simple in 
character. A sink for drawing water is required, also 
troughs of wood, or better of slate, for the preparation 
of the dough. In a few hospitals dough-kneading 
machines driven by steam-power are in use. The 
bake-ovens are heated either with coal, gas, or hot 
water. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 49 

17. Refrigerator Room and Ice House. — Large hos- 
pitals require cold-storage rooms for meat and fish, 
for butter, and other supplies. These should be ar- 
ranged in every way sanitary, and in view of the fact 
that meat readily becomes tainted and that milk 
absorbs impurities, the greatest care should be exer- 
cised in the drainage arrangements of refrigerating 
rooms. No direct connection with any foul water 
sewer should be tolerated. 

Hospitals require large quantities of ice for various 
purposes, and where no refrigerating plant is installed, 
an ice house will be a desirable feature. Much atten- 
tion should be given to the source of the ice supply 
to avoid the dangers of impure ice. The drainage of 
the ice house requires great pare, and should any sewers 
necessarily pass near by, it will be necessary to take 
special precautions to avoid any leakage of sewage 
towards the ice house. 

18. The Hospital Laundry. — The laundry is a very 
important adjunct of the hospital. A location for the 
same separated from the wards and the main building 
is always desirable to avoid the annoyance from steam 
vapors permeating the building. As a rule, it is de- 
sirable to place the laundry in a separate building. 
This should be a roomy structure, providing ample 
space for the laundry operations. The building usually 
requires several subdivisions. There should be a room 
for the soiled clothes, a large wash-house, a drying- 
room, an ironing-room, and a room for the storage 
and assortment of the clean linen, in which room sew- 
ing and mending may also be done. Sometimes a sepa- 



50 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

rate small laundry is provided for the washing of the 
officer's linen. A disinfecting and fumigating room 
for the soiled linen and bedding of infectious disease 
patients should be a part of every complete hospital 
laundry. 

A laundry requires a good deal of plumbing, and 
also laundry machinery, for which steam and water 
supplies and wastes must be arranged. The wash- 
room proper contains the wash-tubs, the number of 
these depending upon the population of the hospital. 
Wash-tubs, which formerly were of wood, are now 
obtainable at reasonable prices in white and yellow 
stoneware with roll-rims, thus doing away with wooden 
frames or tops which are an abomination and never 
last beyond a few months. The tubs should be prop- 
erly trapped and connected with separate Y-branches 
to the line of the drain-pipe. Hot and cold water- 
pipes should be provided of ample size to supply all 
the faucets of a row of tubs if running simultaneously. 
Washing-machines are not usually connected with the 
drains, but discharge over open concrete gutters, with 
trapped outlets to the drainage system. Sometimes 
the room contains rinsing machines, steam-boiling 
kettles, soap kettles, etc. Centrifugal dryers or 
wringers are provided, which must have trapped floor 
connections to remove the drippings from the wash. 

The remaining outfit of a steam laundry consists of 
drying-rooms with horses, steam mangles, and special 
ironing machines for shirts, collars, and cuffs, starch 
kettles, an engine to drive the shafting for all machinery, 
and stoves for heating the irons, all of which require 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 5r 

steam and gas connections. A laundry is often the 
place where a fire starts in a hospital, and it may be 
wise to guard further against this calamity by providing 
not only fire stand-pipes with fire-valves and fire-hose, 
but also a complete automatic sprinkler system, requir- 
ing roof tanks, piping, valves, and sprinkler heads. 

19. The Boiler-house. — The hospital boiler-house, 
containing the steam-heating and power-boilers, the 
coal vaults, the boiler-feed, house, and fire pumps, 
sometimes a suction tank, the dynamos and engines 
and switchboard, will require a good deal of plumbing 
work, in connection with the supply- and discharge- 
piping and necessary cross-connections- of the pumps. 
Sometimes the general hot-water tank for the insti- 
tution is placed in this building. There should also 
be a small engineer's toilet-room, with water-closet, 
wash-basin and sink, and a spray-bath for the firemen. 

20. The Drug Store and Dispensary. — Every hos- 
pital requires a drug store, and often it has a public 
dispensary. This department should be fitted up with 
one or more sinks for washing of bottles and for drawing 
water; sometimes a separate wash-basin is fitted up. 
There may also be a pressure-filter to obtain pure 
water. Adjoining the waiting-room of the dispensary 
there should be separate public toilet-rooms for men 
and women. 

21. Water-closets for Employees. — For the large 
number of employees, constituting the male and female 
help in the working departments of a hospital, suitable 
toilet-room accommodations must be provided. These 
do not require a special description, but I may here 



52 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

remark with regard to the plumbing of servants' water- 
closets and also the general plumbing in the kitchen, 
scullery, pantry, bakery, laundry, and boiler-house, 
that there seems to be a general and very erroneous 
impression prevailing that anything in the way of 
plumbing will answer the purpose, provided that there 
is a water supply and a waste connection, and that 
the separate trapping of fixtures would here be an ultra- 
refinement and vent-pipes to the roof an unnecessary 
expense. I have found in my examinations of public 
institutions a great deal of defective and slovenly 
plumbing work in the working department of hos- 
pitals, much lack of cleanliness, and a great indiffer- 
ence on the part of those in charge of the same. 

These departments of a hospital require the same 
correctness in planning, careful execution of the work, 
and good substantial fixtures as the bath-rooms and 
toilet-rooms for the patients and officers. The rooms 
where the food supply is prepared should be free from 
any possible sewer air contamination, not only to 
guard against the food becoming contaminated, but 
also to protect the health of the kitchen and laundry 
employees. 

22. The Mortuary or Deadhouse. — Large hospitals 
always have a small separate deadhouse, where patients 
who died are kept pending burial or a post-mortem 
examination. The principal room should be finished 
entirely with non- absorbent materials, so that it may 
be washed from time to time by means of a hose. The 
floor should be tiled and provided with floor drains 
and sewer connection. There should be a porcelain 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 53 

roll-rim sink with hot and cold water. For anatomical 
dissecting there should be a slate, marble or glass slab 
or a post-mortem table arranged to revolve, with a 
waste connection and with overhead supplies, to which 
rubber hose may be attached. 

23. The Disinfecting Station. — Modern hospitals are 
also provided with a disinfecting station which is gen- 
erally in a separate and detached building. This may 
serve not only the purpose of disinfecting the linen 
and clothes of infected patients before they are re- 
ceived in the hospital, but also for the disinfection of 
soiled articles before washing, of bed mattresses and 
other bedroom furniture by means of either steam or 
formaldehyde. Generally, the disinfecting station is 
provided with a bath-room having a spray-bath for 
the use of the attendants. This building is an impor- 
tant adjunct of every hospital for infectious diseases. 
Usually the disinfecting room is divided by a solid 
partition into two parts, in one of which the things 
to be disinfected are placed in the apparatus, while 
they are taken out at the opposite end in the adjoining 
room. Every hospital should have a portable disin- 
fecting apparatus for safely generating large volumes 
of formaldehyde gas which may be used in the disin- 
fection of the hospital wards, or for ward utensils and 
bedding, or for disinfecting excreta and other wastes. 

24. Garbage Disposal. — Large hospitals should have 
a garbage furnace or cremator for the destruction, by 
fire, ot the garbage and solid waste matters, of the in- 
fected surgical bandages, dressings, and of the other 
numerous refuse of the institution. This garbage 



54 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

cremator may advantageously be erected in the boiler- 
house or immediately adjoining the same. 

, 25. Sewage Disinfection. — In infectious disease hos- 
pitals, provision should be made for the disinfection 
of the excreta of typhoid fever and cholera patients. 
This is also advisable in the case of the sputum of 
patients suffering with phthisis. The disinfection niay 
be accomplished by means of steam under pressure 
with the addition of chemicals, such as permanganate 
of potash. In some of the European hospitals, the 
water-closet fixtures for infectious patients are arranged 
with steam connection so that an immediate disinfec- 
tion of the excreta may be carried out in these fixtures. 
All such arrangements require special treatment, but 
a detailed description would lead us too far. 

26. Hot-water Supply. — Hot water is required in a 
hospital in great abundance. As a rule this is obtained 
from closed round steel or boiler iron tanks, in which 
a brass or copper steam coil is placed, which serves 
to heat the water. It is desirable to maintain an even 
temperature of the tank water, and this may be accom- 
plished by the use of the thermostats or temperature 
regulators. A somewhat different hot-water generating 
device is the Tobey heater, which has been used to 
some extent in large hospitals, and which consists of a 
large horizontal heater, with automatic steam-valve, 
regulated and operated by an expansion rod located 
in the upper part of the heater. This device prevents 
the overheating of the water and thus tends to economize 
in fuel. It also enables the control of the temperature 
of the hot water, as the valve may be set to give water 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 55 

at any desired temperature, and thus avoids to a great 
extent the danger of scalding which is ever-present 
where the hot water may become overheated. 

It is desirable in a large building to furnish hot 
water at various degrees of heat, therefore several 
heaters should be provided, one intended to furnish 
water for the baths and lavatories, in which the tem- 
perature need not exceed 130 degrees F., the other 
to furnish hot water for dish-washing and kitchen pur- 
poses, which may be required at a temperature of about 
180 degrees F. For the spray -baths, the ''Gegenstrom" 
apparatus has proven very successful, and not the 
least advantage of the same is the fact that it renders 
special hot-water tanks entirely unnecessary, as it 
heats water by steam directly and almost instanta- 
neously. There are other instantaneous water heaters, 
using gas as fuel, which in some places in a hospital 
may prove efficient and serviceable. 

27. Water Supply for Fire Protection Purposes. — No 
hospital building should be left without fire protection 
and fire-extinguishing appliances. There should be 
lines of fire stand-pipes in all buildings, with fire- valves 
and fire-hose on every floor. These may be supplied 
either from the elevated roof tanks, or from a special 
fire-pump in the boiler-house. A number of fire-pails 
should also be provided and set on shelves along the 
corridors and in unimportant rooms. A number of 
non-freezing fire-hydrants should be placed in the hos- 
pital grounds, and the necessary lengths of rubber-lined 
fire hose should be kept in readiness in the engineer's 
department, or better in a special fire-engine house, 



56 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

with hose-tower in which the hose after practice fire- 
drills may be hung up vertically to dry.* 

Oonclusion. — In a well-managed hospital the most 
thorough cleanliness and a pure condition of the air 
indoors are secured by a constant vigilance against all 
manner of dirt. Half the battle is won where the 
buildings have a good system of sewerage and plumb- 
ing. These will not only prevent a contamination of 
the atmosphere in the toilet-rooms, lavatories, and 
sick wards by emanations from the sewer- pipes and 
plumbing fixtures, but they will also render it impos- 
sible for the soil upon which the building stands to 
become polluted and give off gases injurious to health 
and fatal to disease. They will, finally, assist in the 
maintenance of absolute cleanliness of the walls and 
floors, of personal cleanliness, and purity of the water 
and food suppty of a hospital. 

Note. — During a recent vacation spent in traveling in 
Europe, the author visited a large number of modern 
hospitals, and found these to compare most favorably 
with similar buildings in this country. Among the 
more important ones inspected I mention the Ham- 
burg-Eppendorf General Hospital, the Heil-Anstalt Bee- 
litz near Berlin, the Hospital for Insane at Doesen near 
Leipsic, the Johannstadt Hospital in Dresden, the new 
Municipal Hospital of Nuremberg, and finally, the 
Elizabeth Hospital of Aix-la-Chapelle. Of many of 
these the author was fortunate enough to secure plans 
and interior views. To those in search of the latest 

* See Appendix A. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 57 

practical information regarding hospital planning and 
equipment, a visit to all of them is recommended, and 
especially to the latest examples of hospital construc- 
tion at Beelitz near Berlin, and at Nuremberg. The new 
bath-house of the Elizabeth Hospital at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
while not very large, is a model particularly worth seeing. 

The tendency in Europe has for some time been, and 
seems to be at present, to avoid absolutely any monu- 
mental buildings of many stories, but to erect instead 
buildings of one or two stories on the pavilion plan, 
which would be capable of being easily replaced by 
new structures in case of necessity. The majority of 
large hospitals are so built and are located, not in the 
center of the city, but on the outskirts where the lesser 
cost of land enables the designer to spread out the 
buildings, thus achieving better sanitary results. 

It was the author's intention at first to illustrate 
this chapter, but he refers those interested to the ex- 
cellent catalogue of Hospital Fixtures, issued by the 
J. L. Mott Iron Works, in which are illustrated quite 
a number of special hospital features taken from the 
author's practice. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HOSPITAL SANITATION AND 

ARCHITECTURE.* 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BOOKS. 

"Notes on Hospitals." Florence Nightingale. London, 1863. 
"Barracks and Hospitals." Circular No. 4. War Depart- 
ment, Surgeon-Generars Office. Washington, 1870. 

* Compiled by the author. The publications are arranged 
according to year of publication. 



58 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"Approved Plans and Specifications." Circular No. lo. War 
Dep., Surgeon-General's Office. Washington, 1877. 

"Hospitals: Their History, Organization and Construction." 
Dr. W. Gill Wylie. New York, 1877. 

"On Hospitals for the Insane." T. S. Kirkbridge. Phil., 1880. 

"Handbook for Hospitals." State Charities Aid Association. 
New York, 1883. 

"The Johns Hopkins Hospital." Dr. J. S. Billings. Baltimore, 
1890. 

"Healthy Hospitals:" Observations on some points connected 
with hospital construction. Sir Douglas Galton. Oxford. 
1893. 

"Hospitals and Asylums of the World." Henry C. Burdett. 
London, 1893. 

"Small Hospitals: " Establishments and Maintenance. A. Wor- 
cester. New York, 1894. 

"Suggestions to Hospital Visitors." Billings and Hurd. Phila., 
1895. 

"Handbook on Hospitals." Mouat and Snell. London. 

GERMAN BOOKS. 

"Die Einrichtung von Krankenhausern." Dr. F. Oppert. 
Leipzig. 1859. 

" Bemerkungen iiber Hospitaler." Florence Nightingale. Ber- 
lin. 1866. 

"Studien iiber Kranken-Anstalten, deren bauliche Anlage und 
Ausfiihrung." J. Horky. Berlin. 1866 

"Die Krankenhauser, ihre Einrichtung und Verwaltung." Mit 
Atlas. C. H. Esse. 1868. 

"Studien iiber Krankenhauser," E. Plage. Berlin. 1873. 

"Hospitaler und Wohlthatigkeitsanstalten." Dr. R. Oppert. 
Leipzig. 1875. 

" Ueber Geschichte, Statistik, Bau und Einrichtung der Kranken- 
hauser." Dr. F. Sander. Berlin. 1875. 

"Album eiserner Hauser. Krankenhauser, Baracken, Lazar- 
ette, etc." C. J. Dammers. Berlin. ^875. 

"Neuere Krankenhauser." Bericht iiber die Pariser Weltaus- 
stellung im Jahre 1878. F. Gruber. Wien. 1879. 

"Die Krankenhauser." Anlage, Bau und Einrichtung. Dr. F. 
Oppert. Leipzig. 1882. 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 59 

"Das Krankenhaus und die Kaserne der Zukunft." Mit 8 

Tafeln. L. Degen. Muenchen. 1882. 
"Zerlegbare Hauser." (Transportable Baracken). J. Nieden. 

Berlin. 1889. 
" Mittheilungen iiber das neue allgemeine Krankenhaus zu 

Hamburg-Eppendorf." Th. Deneke. Braunschweig. 1889. 
"Welche Aufgaben erfiillt das Krankenhaus der kleinen Stadte 

und wie ist es einzurichten ? " Dr. Mencke. Berlin. 1889. 
"Die transportable Lazareth-Baracke." Coler und Werner. 

Berlin. 1890. 
"Das Kaiser-Franz- Josef Krankenhaus." Scjiopp und Sehnal. 

Wien. 1 89 1. 
" Krankenhauser fur kleinere Stadte und landliche Kreise." 

Dr. J. V. Kerschensteiner. Braunschweig. 1892. 
"Hygienische Grundsatze beim Hospitalbau." Dr. Schumburg. 

Berlin. 1892. 
"Grundsatze fiir den Bau von Krankenhausern." P. Boettger. 

Berlin. 1894. 
" Drei Vortrage auf dem Gebiete der Hygiene." Leipzig. 1895. 

Enthaltend : Leitende Grundsatze fiir die Anlage von Kran- 
kenhausern und ihre nothwendigen Reformen der Zukunft, 

Dr. Rubner. 
" Der Baracken-Bau mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der Wohn- 

und Epidemie-Baracken." W. Lange. Leipzig. 1895. 
"Handbuch der Architektur. IV, v. 1. Krankenhauser." O. 

Kuhn. Stuttgart. 1897. 
" Grundriss-Vorbilder von Gebauden aller Art." L. Klasen. 

Berlin. Abtheilung IV. Gebaude fiir Gesundheitspflege 

und Heilansalten. 
"Baukunde des Architekten." Band II. Berlin. 

REPORTS, ARTICLES, AND PAMPHLETS. 

German. 

"Ueber Hospitaler und Lazarette." R. Virchow. Sammlung 
gemeinverstdndlicher Vortrage. Hamburg. 1866. 

"Einiges iiber den Modernen Spitalbau und die Krankenpflege." 
Wiener Freiwillige Rettungs-Gesellschaft. Wien. 1884. 

"Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore." Dr. H. Albrecht. 
'* Centralblatt f. allg. Gesundheitspflege." X. Jahrg. 



6o SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"Grundziige fiir Bau, Einrichtung und Verwaltung von Abson- 
derungsraumen und Sonderkrankenhausern fiir ansteck- 
ende Krankheiten." Dr. M. Pistor. Deutsche Vierteljahrs- 
schrift fiir offentUche Gesundheitspfiege. Viertes Heft. 
Band 25. Braunschweig. 1893. 

"Krankenhausund Krankenpflege." Prof . Dr. Rumpf . Berlin. 
1896. 

" Polizei-Verordnung iiber Anlage, Bau und Einrichtung von 
offentHchen und Privat-Kranken-Entbindungs und Irren- 
Anstalten." BerHn. 1898. 

English. 

"Hospitals and Hospital Construction." J. M. Woodworth. 
Washington. 1874. Reprint from Report U. S. Marine Hos- 
pital Service. 

"New York Hospital." Report of Building Committee. New 
York. 1877. 

"Hospital Laundries." State Charities Aid Association. New 
York. l88o. 

"Hospital Construction." American Architect. Boston. 1882. 

"Modern Hospital Construction." E.C.Robins. Builder. 1883. 

"Circular Hospital Wards." H. S. Snell. Am. Architect. 1885. 

"Hospital Construction." Sanitary Record. 1885. 

"'Additional Hospitals for Insane." Report of Commissioners. 
Indiana. 1886. 

"General Description and Memoranda Accompanying the Draw- 
ings for the Methodist Episcopal Hospital." Submitted in 
competition by J. C. Worthington, Architect. Builder and 
Decorator. 1888. 

"The Bridgeport Hospital." G. F. Lewis. Report of State 
Board of Health, Conn. 

"A Model Hospital." K. Hoffman. Munsey's Mag. 

"Water Supply, Drainage and Sewage Disposal for Lunatic 
Asylums." Rogers Field. London. 1892. 

"The Rain Bath. "A Novel Form of Bath and New Method of 
Bathing Insane Patients. Wm. P. Gerhard. Am. Jour, 
of Insanity. 1895. 

"Plans of St. Luke's Hospital." Architecture and Building. 
i8q6- 



HOSPITAL SANITATION. 6i 

"Fever Hospitals." T. W. Aldwinckle, Architecture and Build- 
ing. 1896. 
"A Study of a Hospital Plan." H. Hun. Albany Medical 

Annals. 1897. 
"The Construction of Hospitals." W. Henman. Architecture 

and Building. 1898. 
"Hospital Construction and Administration." Albany Medical 

Annals. (Special Hospital Number.) February, 1898. 
"The Plumbing, Drainage and Water Supply of Hospitals." 

Wm. Paul Gerhard. Albany, 1898. 
"The Second Hospital for the Insane of the State of Maryland." 

G. Rohe. Am. Jour, of Insanity. 1898. 
"A Modern Madhouse." An Inspection Report. A. L. Gihon. 

Reprinted from the Phil. Med. Jour. 1898. 
"Description of Building and Floor Plans. The Society of the 

Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York." 
"Axioms and Principles of Modern Hospital Construction." M. 

Junghaendel, Am. Architect. 1900. 
"Hospital Sanitation." By Wm. Paul Gerhard, Illustrated 

Amer. Architect. April 22d and 29, 1905. 



THEATRE SANITATION 



II 

THEATRE SANITATION* 

I. Unsanitary Conditions in Theatres. — Arrangements 
for the health and comfort of theatre-goers, of actors 
and of stage employees are seldom considered, except 
in rare instances of a few recent metropolitan theatres. 
Leaving these out of consideration, it is no exaggera- 
tion to state that m.ost theatres are ill-ventilated and 
badly drained, that the arrangement of their toilet- 

* The substance of the above chapter was presented by the 
author in a paper, read at the annual meeting of the American 
Pubhc Health Association at Ottawa, Canada, September 27, 
1893. The paper was introduced with the following words* 

"The Honorable President of our Association has invited me 
to prepare a paper for its annual meeting, and seeing that the 
Executive Committee has placed among the topics for con- 
sideration 'Sanitation with special reference to Drainage, 
Plumbing, and Ventilation of Public Buildings,' I have selected 
as my subject 'The Hygiene of Theatres,' not so much with 
a view of presenting any new lacts or startling theories, as 
with a view of eliciting discussion upon a question of sani- 
tation which has been hitherto somewhat neglected. 

"One reason for this apparent neglect is undoubtedly the 
fact that, though large numbers of persons are congregated in 
theatres, concert halls, and other places of amusement the 
duration of stay in such buildings is a brief one, never exceed- 
ing three or four hours at • the most, whereas in other public 
buildings, such as schools, court-houses, assembly halls, and 
lecture halls, occupancy generally extends during the whole 
or a large part of each day. I venture to assert, however, that 

65 



66 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

rooms is unsanitary and ill-planned, that the plumbing 
is defective, the water-closet accommodation inad- 
equate, the dressing-rooms overcrowded and without 
any provision for comfort and fresh air, and that the 
general state of cleanliness of the building is far from 
being satisfactory. 

It is a well-known fact that there are vast numbers 
of persons who, while they would thoroughly enjoy a 
good play, are restrained from visiting such places of 
amusement, for the very good reason that they fear 
the exposure to the stifling, noxious, overheated atmo- 
sphere of the buildings, and who are sure, if they do 
go, to awake the next morning with a severe headache 
or with a cold or sore throat, contracted through expo- 
sure to draughts. If this is true of the theatre-goers. 



going to see a play would be a far greater pleasure, if theatres 
were adequately ventilated and otherwise kept in a sanitary 
condition. 

"My intention originally was to base the statements of this 
paper upon a careful detailed personal examination of exist- 
ing theatre buildings, but pressure of business and the limited 
time afforded me for the preparation of this paper prevented 
me from making such special studies and inspections, and I 
am therefore obliged to draw largely from casual experience 
and observations taken while visiting both parts (i.e., before 
and behind the curtain) of a number of theatres. 

"Doubtless, many of the points brought up in my paper, con- 
tain nothing new to the learned members of this association. 
I hope, however, that the paper will be the means of bringing 
about a free discussion, which will in the end surely result in 
benefit to the public, for there are hundreds of theatres and 
amusement halls in our cities and towns, the sanitary ar- 
rangements of which are utterly bad and require a thorough re- 
modeling." 



THEATRE SANITATION. 67 

how much more must the performers and stage hands 
suffer, who are obKged to remain in the building, not 
only during the performance but also for rehearsals, 
and for the countless preparations incidental to the 
staging of a new play. The general state of health of 
performers must in consequence suffer and they are 
often subject to throat troubles or other ailments. 

The arrangement of the stage dressing-rooms is at 
times frightful beyond description. Often they are 
located below the level of the stage, in narrow dark 
underground passages, without outside window or any 
other means of ventilation. Their size is reduced to a 
minimum and they are generally overcrowded. In 
many instances, the theatre architect has done his best 
to provide suitable dressing-rooms for a small com- 
pany, and the place is subsequently changed to one 
devoted to comic opera or spectacular entertainments, 
requiring a larger number of performers. To accom- 
modate these, the dressing-rooms are partitioned off, 
or dark underground places are selected for additional 
rooms. Then again, we find the water-closet accom- 
modations, both for the public and for the actors 
and theatre employees, insufficient and always more 
or less antiquated, worn out, and defective, or lacking 
a sufficient water supply and flush. In many places 
their location and state of untidiness suggest the great- 
est disregard for decency and mioral feeling. 

One of the usual defects has reference to the site or 
location of a theatre, for the site frequently decides 
the location of the places from where the fresh air for 
the audience is taken. Many of the older theatres 



68 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

are located in the middle of a city block, with only one 
side fronting on the street. At the back or side of the 
building there is in some cases a small, dark, ill-aired 
court, obstructed by rubbish and accumulation of 
disused stage scenery, and which is frequently used 
as the only available urinal accommodation for the 
stage hands. How can it be possible to provide suit- 
able inlets for fresh air for the audience in such courts 
where the air must be of necessity foul? Quite often, 
odors from neighboring restaurant kitchens or from 
stables extend to this court, and rush up to the stage 
whenever a door is opened. The isolation of the build- 
ing, at least on three sides, is therefore very desirable 
not only for safety's sake, but to provide efficient ven- 
tilation. 

In the understage we often find other sources for bad 
odors, such as defective or leaky sewer-pipes, untrapped 
floor cesspools and abominable pan-closets. The con- 
taminated air will naturally rise to the stage, and 
rush into the auditorium whenever the curtain rises, 
or when the orchestra exit door to the understage is 
opened for a moment. I know of at least one theatre 
in Greater New York where each time the curtain rises 
a strong whiff of sewer air greets the audience. 

The plan of a theatre building of ten, is, of necessity, 
such that the auditorium has few, if any, windows to 
the outer air, which could be used for air-flushing at 
times when the house is not occupied. As a result of 
the shortcomings just mentioned, theatre audiences 
are obliged to breathe for several hours in succession, 
a noxious compound of the products of combustion 



THEATRE SANITATION. 69 

due to gas illumination, and of the respiration and 
perspiration of hundreds of people, some of them 
doubtless in need of a thorough washing, while many- 
are clothed in ill-smelling and dirty underclothes. 

During a performance the atmosphere thus becomes 
stuffy, and oppressive beyond description. It is stated 
upon good authority that chemical analyses show the 
air in the dress circle and gallery of many a theatre 
to be in the evening more foul than the air of street 
sewers. (See Appendix B.) 

Behind the curtain, the worst forms of unsanitary 
conditions often exist. The stage floor is full of dust, 
which is but rarety thoroughly swept, and becomes 
stirred up by the constant shifting of scenery, by the 
rolling up of stage carpets, by the moving of furniture 
and set pieces, by the dancing, etc. In the auditorium 
the carpets, upholstery of the seats, and the box decor- 
ations and hangings become saturated with the vile 
odors, possibly causing sore throats to persons in the 
audience who are susceptible to such ailments. Plush 
seats and floor carpets in public places are recognized 
harbingers of dust and disease germs, such as those of 
tuberculosis. 

The wonder is that the public will not abstain from 
going to those theatres, the sanitary conditions of 
which are notoriously and grossly bad. If they were 
to do this, it would set the managers thinking, and 
reforms in the matter of theatre sanitation would soon 
be begun, in the same way as improvements in the 
safety of such places of amusement were, to some ex- 
tent, impelled by the fact that after a theatre fire dis- 



70 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

aster, the public kept away from buildings known to 
be unsafe or even veritable death-traps.* 

Having briefly alluded to some of the usual defects, 
I will now speak of the hygienic requirements of theatres 
and suggest some remedies which would render such 
buildings sanitary and comfortable and would enable 
theatre-goers to derive a few hours of real enjoyment 
in which to thoroughly appreciate the play. 

I am convinced of the fact that sanitary reforms 
will in the future be accomplished if the public will 
only demand them. 

2. Drainage and Sewerage. — In arranging for the 
drainage and sewerage of a theatre building the general 
rules as to size, and material for the sewer lines, the 
grade to be given, the mianner of making proper pipe 
joints, etc., should be followed. As a rule, the area 
covered by a theatre building is so large as to require 
at least two six -inch sewer connections. Proper atten- 
tion should be paid to proportioning the sizes of the 
rain-water conductors which drain the roof surfaces 
over the stage and the auditorium, because these are 
at times very large. 

All areas and courts should be properly paved, pitched, 
graded, and drained. A difficulty in the way of drain- 
age often arises from the considerable depth to which 
that portion of the stage house, known as the "under 
stage," has to be carried. Owing to the requirements 
of stage traps and stage machinery, the level of the 

* See the Author's work, "Theatres, their Safety from Fire 
and Panic, their Comfort and Healthfulness." Published by 
Bates ancl Quild Co., Boston, Mass. 



THEATRE SANITATION. 71 

understate is frequently located below the level of 
the sewer in the street. Any subsoil water accumulating 
in the sump, mms.t be removed by lifting it either by 
means of automatic cellar drainers, worked by water 
pressure, or by means of steam ejectors, or finally by 
electric centrifugal pumps. Often the entire sub-cel- 
lar is constructed perfectly water-tight, like the cellar 
of a warehouse situated below tide or subsoil water 
level. This not only keeps out the subsoil water and 
prevents dampness, which is undesirable for the stage 
house, as it would tend to ruin the stage flooring, the 
stage property, and the actors' and supers' costumes, 
but it also prevents ground air from rising upwards 
and thus tends to keep the air of the stage pure and 
wholesom.e. 

3. Plumbing. — I do not exaggerate when I state that 
there are but very few theatres which have the plumb- 
ing properly arranged. In recently built theatres, in 
those cities where plumbing rules and regulations are 
enforced, we find, of course, soil-pipes and waste lines 
carried full size up to the roof, and fixtures separately 
trapped. Generally, however, the plumbing is of the 
plainest kind, without any attempt at elaboration. 
On the other hand, the plumbing of theatres and "opera 
houses" in smaller towns and villages exhibits often 
the worst defects imaginable. The entire work is too 
often carried out in a slip-shod manner, the water- 
closets of dressing-rooms being generally set on "dead 
ends" of drain lines', having no soil-pipe extension 
to the roof and often being a part of the dressing-room, 
partitioned off by only thin board partitions. Basins 



72 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

and sinks are sometimes in direct connection with the 
sewer, traps being considered a superfluous and alto- 
gether too expensive refinement for such buildings. In 
dark corners disused closets or sinks are at times dis- 
covered. Drains are laid in a hap-hazard manner, 
often sloping the wrong way. Tile drains and cement 
pipes are used where extra heavy cast-iron sewer-pipes 
should be run; all manner of faulty joints are discovered 
and in many cases the sewage drips on to the floor 
and becomes a contributory cause of the annoying 
odors which so often greet the audience when the cur- 
tain rises. Pan closets and ill-flushed hopper-closets 
are still made use of, and the apartments in which 
they are arranged are found to be in an indescribably 
filthy condition. This being the case, it is not sur- 
prising that we should find, even in some of our larger 
cities, an advertisement printed on the theatre pro- 
grammes, stating that "the ' Ne plus Ultra' or other 
well-known disinfectant is used in this theatre." 

It goes without saying that the plumbing of theatres 
should be planned and arranged with the same care 
as that of other public buildings. There should be 
toilet-rooms for each tier in the auditorium, entirely 
separate retiring-rooms being provided for men and 
women. Suflicient accommodations should be pro- 
vided in that part of the stage house which contains 
the dressing-rooms, for actors and actresses. In addi- 
tion there should be in the basement well arranged and 
ventilated toilet-rooms for the stage hands, employees, 
and the supers. The office of the theatre manager 
often has a separate toilet-room, and there is, in larger 



THEATRE SANITATION. 73 

houses, a toilet-room adjoining the star's dressing-room. 
Near the engine- and pump-room a toilet-room for the 
engineer and his help should be provided, and if there 
is in the front part of the house a smoking-room or a 
refreshment room, a men's toilet-room is arranged 
with urinals and lavatories. 

Handsome nickel-plated work and fittings do not 
seem called for in a theatre, except possibly in the 
toilet-rooms of the parquet and dress circle, or for the 
occupiers of the boxes in large opera houses, but never- 
theless the entire arrangement should be in every way 
sanitary and the best workmanship is required. Wood- 
work should be avoided for well-known reasons. The 
floors and walls should be rendered water-proof and 
non-absorbent, partitions between water-closets and 
urinal stalls should consist of marble, slate, or soap- 
stone. Every toilet-room should have a window to 
the outer air, and in addition artificial ventilation by 
exhaust flues should be provided. 

The closets should be of glazed earthen or vitreous 
ware which will not craze. The type known as "wash- 
down" closet is particularly adapted for a theatre, 
and the flush for the same should always come from a 
special copper-lined flushing cistern with pull flush. 
In some instances an automatic seat flush may be pre- 
ferable, owing to the careless manner in which the 
public, as well as the stage hands, use such places. 

For the same reason it may be preferable to have 
porcelain urinal bowls with self-acting intermittent 
flush-tanks. In theatres in which spectacular plays 
or ballets are performed, requiring a large number of 



74 - SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

female supers and dancers, self -flushing urinettes or 
pedestal urinals for women may with advantage be 
provided, as the same require for connection to the 
sewer a two-inch waste line, whereas the water-closet, 
ordinarily used by women as a urinal, requires a four- 
inch 6oil-pipe. 

All stage dressing-rooms should be fitted up with 
small corner or wall lavatories, which must have both 
hot- and cold-water faucets. Each of these should be 
safely trapped, while the waste line should be extended 
to the roof for ventilation. 

I have, on different occasions, pointed out the san- 
itary advantages of bathing- facilities in general, and 
of the modern rain-bath in particular. I trust I may 
be in accord with the views of other sanitary advisers 
when I suggest that there should be in every theatre 
one or more douche or rain-baths for the use of actors 
and of the stage employees. A simple, inexpensive, 
waterproof stall of Alberene stone, or of slate, can be 
fitted up with a mixing valve for hot and cold water 
and with an overhead inclined douche. This does not 
occupy much space nor does it cost much to operate, 
because hot water is usually available. I am certain 
that it would be well patronized after the close of the 
performance. 

There should be provided a few slop-sinks, both near 
the stage and in the public toilet-rooms. They are re- 
quired by the women scrubbing the floors, for the 
emptying of wash-water, and to draw clean water. 

The general principles of sanitary house drainage 
apply with full force to the plumbing of theatres, and 



THEATRE SANITATION. 75 

inasmuch as I have frequently discussed and described 
the latter in various books and pamphlets, which are 
readily accessible, and because there is nothing really 
new to be said, the subject must be dismissed with 
these few words.* 

4. Water-supply System. — Theatre buildings require a 
very ample and large supply of water. There should be, 
in each theatre, two entirely distinct systems of sup- 
ply, one of which serves the purpose of fire protection, 
while the other system provides water for the plumbing 
fixtures, for flushing, washing, and general cleanliness. 

The water supply for fire-extinguishing purposes em- 
braces large suction-tanks in the basement, roof tanks 
to supply the automatic sprinkler system, and a power- 
ful fire pump in the engine-room which supplies the fire . 
stand-pipes and fire-valves. This system has been 
elaborately described by the author in his two books 
on "Theatre Fires and Panics," and on "Theatres, 
Their Safety from Fire and Panic, Their Comfort and 
Healthfulness " to which those interested are referred 
for further details. 

The house supply should be entirely separate from 
the fire-service supply. Where the street pressure is 
insufficient to supply the plumbing fixtures in the 
upper parts of the theatre, special house tanks should 
be provided on the roof over the stage. It will readily 
be seen that it would be inadvisable to use the sprinkler 
tank for such purpose, as it might be found emuty at 



* See "House Drainsige and Sanitary Plumbing"; also 
/'Sanitary Engineering of Buildings." 



76 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

a time when water is wanted for fire-extinguishing pur- 
poses. The rules of the National Board of Fire Under- 
writers wisely specify that no branch for sinks or for 
drawing water for any purpose whatsoever shall be 
taken from the sprinkler tanks. 

Sometimes house tanks placed above the highest 
plumbing fixtures, for instance on one of the upper 
flies or in the rigging loft, fill at night by pressure from 
the street mains; in the majority of cases, however, 
it is necessary to pump the water to the tank, which 
is accomplished by means of direct-acting steam-^umps, 
or by electric pumps, or hot-air engines, or even wind- 
mills placed on the roof. 

The house-water service comprises also a hot-water 
tank, because the players and supers require, in their 
dressing-room, hot water in abundance at the basins 
and wash sinks to remove the face paint, etc. Hot 
water is likewise required at the slop-sinks for the 
use of the scrubwomen. 

Regarding the water service-pipes, their material 
and arrangement, the shut-off s on the lines and their 
branches, the system does not differ essentially , from 
that provided for other public buildings. Where drink- 
ing water is provided on the stage, and in the corridors 
outside of the dressing-rooms, filters and likewise water- 
coolers may be required. These do not present any 
special feature worth mentioning. 

5. Ventilation.* — I come now to a very important 
requirement of theatre buildings, namely, that of ven- 

* See Appendix B, 



THEATRE SANITATION. 77 

tilation. I have already made allusion in my intro- 
ductory remarks, to the almost universal lack of ven- 
tilation in theatres, which causes the restlessness, 
languor, and drowsiness of theatre audiences, and I 
have pointed out, that a wise and thoughtful theatre 
manager will, in order to insure a "full house," use all 
possible means and care to have his house well ven- 
tilated, for nothing contributes more to the enjoyment 
of an audience than pure air. Indeed, it may be 
asserted that in the future those theatres will be patron- 
ized by the public by preference, which are as safe as 
they can be made from the danger of fire and panic, 
and which also have an efficient system of ventilation. 

It is impossible in a short article to discuss in detail 
the various systems and methods of theatre ventilation. 

When new theatre buildings are to be erected, archi- 
tects should always associate with them an expert in 
heating and ventilation, which two problems always 
go together. 

It is necessary that every part of a theatre should 
be ventilated, not only the auditorium, but likewise the 
stage, the dressing-rooms, the understage, the engine- 
room, the vault where the gas meters stand, and finally, 
the numerous toilet and retiring rooms in both parts 
of a theatre. 

The amount of ventilation to be provided varies with, 
and depends largely upon, such features as the mode of 
lighting employed, whether by candles, by oil lamps, 
by gas light or by electric light; upon the size of the 
building and in particular the number of people which 
can be seated in the entire auditorium; and also upon 



78 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

the general state of cleanliness of the building, to 
which I shall refer again hereafter. The introduction 
of electric lighting in theatres has without doubt con- 
tributed more than any other agent to render this vexed 
problem a good deal easier to solve. 

In designing the system of ventilation for a theatre 
it should be borne in mind that ventilation means not 
merely the removal of foul air, but simultaneously the 
introduction of a sufficient quantity of pure air, drawn 
from a suitable source out-of-doors, suitably filtered 
and warmed in winter time, suitably sprayed or cooled 
with ice in summer time, and introduced at all times 
without any unpleasant air currents or draughts. 

It is manifestly insufficient, then, to merely provide 
in the auditorium a few outlet flues and ventilating 
registers of restricted size for the removal of the foul 
air, and to rely upon fresh air being drawn in through 
accidental openings, or cracks or crevices, or from 
the level of the stage. Both inlet and outlet flues of 
generous size should be arranged in all cases, and care 
should be taken that they are in no way obstructed. 
There should be a supply of fresh air to each and every 
person in the audience, equal to at least 30 cubic feet 
per minute, or 1800 cubic feet per hour. General Morin, 
in his well-known "Treatise on Ventilation," suggests 
a supply of 1 200-1 500 cubic feet per person per hour. 
In a theatre of medium size, seating 1000 persons, the 
former allowance means an hourly supply of pure air 
of 1,800,000 cubic feet. It will be obvious that it is 
not quite an easy problem to furnish and admit such 
vast volumes of air, particularly when introduced near 



THEATRE SANITATION. 79 

the floor level, without causing air currents which may 
be unpleasantly felt by theatre-goers. To warm this 
quantity of air in winter time, when the thermometer 
out-doors stands near the zero point, to about 68 de- 
grees, means likewise to the theatre manager a good 
deal of expense for coal. The system must therefore 
be carefully laid out and calculated to secure results 
which will be satisfactory to all concerned. 

It is obvious, furthermore, that to introduce and to 
distribute evenly such large volumes in all parts of the 
audience hall, recourse must be had to forced or me- 
chanical ventilation, by means of fans or blowers. In 
the plenum system of ventilation, draughts are avoided 
by forcing the pure warmed air into the auditorium 
under a slight pressure. 

The fresh air may be introduced at the top of the 
house, through the ceiling, and made to move down- 
wards in a steady and uniform current, until it reaches 
the lungs of the spectators, and the exhaled air is then 
removed at or near the floor line. On the other hand, 
it is possible to bring in the fresh air at or near the 
bottom, and to exhaust it at the ceiling of the hall. 
W^ accordingly distinguish between the two systems 
of downward and upward ventilation. Much has been 
written about these systems, and arguments in favor 
of both may be found in any good text-book on Ven- 
tilation. To a certain extent, both systems may be 
successfully planned and arranged; the plan and sub- 
division of the theatre building, the details of con- 
struction, and local conditions will generally decide the 
question which one is to be preferred. Where a theatre 



8o SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

is lighted with electric lights, the downward system of 
ventilation shows better results than where gas lights 
are used. 

A good system of ventilation should effect a com- 
plete change of air three or four times an hour, and 
this change of air is required not only in the auditorium, 
but also for the foyers, the stage, the dressing-rooms, 
and toilets. 

It is stated, on good authority, that efficient ventila- 
tion improves the acoustic properties of a theatre. On 
the other hand, the question of ventilation should 
always be treated in connection with the question of 
safety from fire. To depend, for example, for the 
ventilation of the stage upon a strong current of air 
from the stage towards the auditorium, seems to me 
to be a grave mistake. For, with such an arrangement, 
in case of a fire on the stage — and it is proven by statis- 
tics that the majority of theatre fires have their origin 
on the stage — the smoke from the burning scenic decor- 
ations, etc., would be drawn into the upper part of 
the auditorium, suffocating numberless persons in the 
gallery before they can make their escape from the 
burning building. On the contrary, it appears to Tne 
that it should be the aim to create, in such cases, a 
strong current away from the auditorium in the direc- 
tion towards the stage. Doubtless, this can be effi- 
ciently accomplished, and one way of doing it is to 
provide large ventilators in the roof over the stage. 
With the stage cut off from the auditorium by a fire- 
proof or fire-resisting curtain, of asbestos cloth, for 
instance, the audience would have plenty of time to 



THEATRE SANITATION. 8i 

escape unhurt, and repetitions of fire catastrophes, 
such as those of the Ring Theatre in Vienna, and of 
Nizza, would become impossible. 

Leaving aside, however, the question of fire, it seems 
but reasonable to require that the stage should have at 
all times thorough ventilation. The fumes incident 
to colored fires, the smoke due to burnt gun powder, 
slight gas leaks and other stage odors should never be 
allowed to penetrate the auditorium. Whoever has 
been an eye-witness to the endless coughing and sneez- 
ing of the audience after a battle scene, such as that 
presented recently at the New York Academy of Music, 
in the play of " Shenandoah," will agree to my proposition 
that separate stage ventilation is extremely desirable. 

There should always be adequate actors' dressing- 
room accommodations. These rooms, too, require to 
be efficiently ventilated, preferably by windows to 
the outer air, or by special vent shafts, where windows 
are out of the question. Finally, the toilet-rooms require 
a constant change of air, and an abundant supply of 
fresh air to keep them sweet and wholesome. Special 
stress should be laid upon the necessity of arranging 
for a current of air from the halls into the toilet-rooms, 
and not vice versa, for otherwise, however well the sys- 
tem of ventilation may work, unpleasant odors from 
the water-closets and urinals may penetrate to other 
parts of the theatre. 

The boiler- and engine-rooms should also have plenty 
of fresh air, and all building regulations provide that 
the vaults where gas meters are set, must have suitable 
ventilation, to prevent explosions of gas. 



82 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

6. Lighting of Theatres. — In the matter of lighting, I 
have already pointed out that with the advent of the 
incandescent electric lights a new era in theatre sani- 
tation has begun. Possibly some readers may remem- 
ber the primitive methods in vogue years ago of lighting 
up the stage and auditorium of a theatre by means of 
tallow candles. Not only was this mode of illumin- 
ation fraught with danger from fire, but the smoke and 
the greasy smell from the candle lights rendered actual 
enjoyment of a play impossible. A slight improvement 
was effected when oil lamps and Argand burners were 
substituted for the open candle flames, but still the 
danger from fire was not lessened to any extent. The 
introduction of the gas light brought increased illu- 
mination, but it also increased immeasurably the fire 
risk, particularly on the stage. The innumerable open 
gas flames both on the stage and in the auditorium, 
and the objectionable central chandelier in particular, 
created a powerful air contamination, so that good 
ventilation seemed almost out of the question. 

The electric light has not only rendered theatres 
vastly better and safer from the danger of a conflag- 
ration, but it has helped to solve, more than anything 
else, the question of theatre ventilation. Anyone may 
verify this statement by visiting successively one of 
the modern theatres lighted by electricity and one of 
the older theatres lighted by gas flames. As a matter 
of safety, building regulations require for theatres two 
kinds of illumination, namely electric lights for the 
auditorium and the stage, and in the corridors, stair- 
cases, foyers, and exits an auxiliary system of candle 



THEATRE SANITATION. 83 

or oil lamps, but it is wisely required that these auxiliary 
lights be set in wall niches provided with separate 
yentilation to the outer air. Where two independent 
sources of the electric current can be had, the aux- 
iliary system of lighting may consist of electric lights 
supplied from a current other than that which sup- 
plies the auditorium and the stage. 

7. General Sanitation. — Having now discussed the im- 
portant requirements of drainage, plumbing, water 
supply, ventilation, and lighting, it remains to speak 
briefly of some matters* connected with general cleanli- 
ness in theatres. From what follows, it will be seen 
that all measures tending to insure cleanliness, will 
also help to improve the ventilation by removing 
sources of air pollution, such as indoor dust, accumu- 
lations of dirt and rubbish, slops and oily wastes, ill- 
kept plumbing fixtures, etc. At the same time, a 
due regard for these details of theatre management 
will render a theatre building in many respects safer 
from the danger of fire. 

That the floors, walls, chairs, and seats in a theatre 
building should be kept clean goes without saying, 
yet, in how many instances is the reverse true! All 
manner of rubbish and dirt should be removed from 
the theatre daily; both the stage floor and all parts 
of the auditorium should be swept and thoroughly 
dusted and cleaned out every morning. The dusting 
should be done in such a manner that the dust will not 
merely be floated in the air, to settle again upon the 
floor covering, the upholstery, and the decorations. 

The floors should be scrubbed and swept, but care 



84 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

should be exercised not to make them so wet as to 
smell murky and damp in the evening. Where pos- 
sible, the hall should be flooded with outdoor air once 
a day. If some sunlight can be admitted all the better, 
for I need not state that sunlight is a better disinfectant 
than any artificial or proprietary article, no matter 
how well it may be advertised. 

The dust accumulating in a theatre is a far more 
serious danger to health than most persons are apt to 
believe. It is but necessary to contemplate for a moment 
the vast amount of out-door dust and dirt, carried 
daily and nightly into a theatre by the many hundreds 
of persons who go to see a play. The dirt which clings 
to the shoes is partly deposited in the floor carpets, 
and often, I regret to say, expectorations are added, 
which in the case of persons suffering from pulmonary 
troubles, may be laden with the germs of tuberculosis. 
Unless the utmost care is exercised in sweeping out 
the floor and in dusting off the chairs and the upholstery, 
the finer particles are not removed but continue to 
float about in the air, and finally settle on the floor 
covering and in the plush of the chairs, and are again 
stirred up when a new audience enters for another 
evening's enjoyment. 

Little attention has in the past been devoted to the 
question of suitable furniture and upholstering of 
audience halls. I am inclined to think that, as a sani- 
tary preventive measure, all plush upholstery and other 
material catching and holding dust, and all heavy 
hangings and decorations of the boxes should be done 
away with in theatres. Chairs covered with leather 



THEATRE SANITATION. 85 

would be far better, and doubtless other sanitary fur- 
niture coverings are available. As a safety measure 
against outbreaks of fire, the decorations of the front 
of the boxes and of the proscenium opening are called 
for in building laws to be of fireproof material. . The 
flatter such decorations are made, the better they are 
from a sanitary point of view, for then they will not 
so easily catch or hold dust. Then there is the ques- 
tion of suitable sanitary floor covering. I hold that 
carpets should not be tolerated. There are better, not 
more expensive floor coverings such as linoleum, or 
the recently introduced interlocked rubber tile floor 
covering which commend themselves to me as vast 
improvements over carpets. Handsome patterns of 
these new sanitary floor coverings may doubtless be 
obtained should a demand for them for audience halls 
arise; but in any event, the question of decoration 
should in my judgment be subordinate to that of 
health. "Salus Publica Suprema Lex" is an old 
saying, which may be aptly applied to this entire 
question. 

With such improved furniture and floor coverings, 
dusting, if done under the watchful eye of a special 
theatre inspector, would be freed from the ordinary 
ever-present dangers. 

Let me add that the same person intrusted with the 
cleaning up of a theatre, should be in charge of the 
proper maintenance of all toilet-rooms, for here again 
eternal vigilance is the price of safety. Plumbing fix- 
tures in a public place are too apt to be abused, no 
matter how well arranged, therefore frequent applica- 



86 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

tions of soap, brush, and hot water are necessary to 
keep the appKances free from odor. 

In the matter of floor space allotted to each person 
in the audience, there is also much room for improve- 
ment. The floor area for each person should be more 
generous, particularly in the gallery, the seats should 
be wider and made more comfortable, and above all, 
there should be plenty of wide gangways and aisles 
to secure a quick emptying of the house. 

In conclusion, I must mention another matter of 
importance in which the theatre-going public is inter- 
ested. I refer to the drinking water, kept in water- 
coolers and pitchers, or served recently in some theatres 
on neat trays to the patrons of the lower parts of the 
auditorium. The drinking water should be filtered by 
one of the few really germ-proof filters. These filters 
should be cleaned often, and occasionally sterilized. 
Where water is cooled by means of ice, it should be done 
in such a v/ay that the melted ice will not mingle with 
the drinking water. It is well known that ice fre- 
quently contains organic impurities and germs of disease ; 
it would, therefore, be a useless proceeding to first filter 
the water and to render it afterwards subject to pollu- 
tion from impure ice. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For the Literature on Theatres the reader is referred to the 
bibhography in the author's book: "Theatre Fires and 
Panics: Their Causes and Prevention," published by Johq 
Wiley & Sons. ^ 



CHURCH SANITATION 



Ill 



CHURCH SANITATION 

If one could form a right conclusion from the small 
number of instances, when sanitary and ventilating 
engineers are professionally consulted in the case of 
church buildings, one would naturally infer that sani- 
tation is not required, and certainly very little thought 
of, in the planning and erecting of houses of worship. 
On the other hand, when we take into consideration 
the fact, well established by recent examples, that a 
modern large church edifice requires not only drainage 
and sewerage, water supply, and gas piping, the same 
as any other building, but also contains quite often an 
elaborate array of plumbing fixtures, in the shape of 
toilet-rooms, kitchens, serving pantries, gymnasia with 
baths and lockers, and, for some denominations, immer- 
sion pools, etc., it would seem that a short chapter in 
a work, intended to describe the different sanitary 
engineering features of the more important public 
buildings, should be devoted to "Church Hygiene." 

It is, perhaps, a trite saying that "cleanliness is next 
to godliness," but nevertheless it seems quite applic- 
able to buildings in which the gospel is preached and 
in which a large audience takes part in religious services. 

It is estimated that approximately 4000 churches are 



90 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

built every year in the United States, and it is a fact 
that in by far the largest number the purely utilitarian 
features of construction and equipment are either very 
little thought of or neglected altogether. Even the 
municipal departments whose duty it is to watch the 
construction, ventilation and sanitation of buildings, 
and which have in the past decades made numerous 
reports and examinations regarding the sanitary con- 
dition of school-houses, hospitals, and tenement-houses, 
have but very seldom inquired into the conditions 
actually existing in many church edifices. 

I. Sanitary Defects in Churches. — Occasionally the 
subject is taken up by the newspaper press, and articles 
such as the following on "Church Sanitation," taken 
from the New York Times of May 21, 1900, call the 
attention of the general public to the undesirable and 
unsanitary conditions existing: 

"In the arrangement made by the Trustees of our city 
churches for the general overhauling and renovation, for which 
the vacation season affords opportunity, we suggest that a 
thorough sanitary survey and inspection be included. 

"We have in mind a large church which, if not distinctly 
typical, is at least a conspicuous example of the tendencies of 
modern church architecture. It is a comparatively new church, 
costs a great deal of money, has a large and wealthy congre- 
gation, and is greatly admired. It occupies an area equiva- 
lent to about five city lots. The auditorium is beautiful, with 
excellent acoustic properties; it is well lighted, equably heated, 
and fairly well ventilated. Owing to the necessity for econo- 
mizing ground space, the principal Sunday School room is in 
the basement, under a portion of the auditorium. This is un- 
fortunate, as it is usually damp, and under some atmospheric 
conditions distinctly 'musty.' To give this basement light 
and ventilation, an atrea about ten feet wide has been provided 



CHURCH SANITATION. 91 

on one side of the building, extending its entire length. It has 
a flag bottom and brick or stone sides. Near the bottom of 
this area are the metal gratings covering the air intakes for 
the hot-air furnaces, which are brick tunnels under the base- 
ment floor. The area is usually damp and always more or less 
dirty. It is a catch basin for all kinds of street dirt, carried 
and dropped by the wind eddies; and a great deal of this dirt 
in dry and windy weather is swept into the air ducts by the 
inflowing currents. In winter, this area contains more or less 
dirty ice and snow, which melts slowly and loads the indrawn 
air with moisture to a point of saturation. The air ducts 
under the cellar floor have never been examined or cleaned 
since the church was built and their condition is a matter of 
conjecture. It may, however, be safely assumed that they 
contain a great deal of dirt of the average composition of street 
sweepings. The arrangement we have described, though quite 
usual in both church and house construction, is distinctly 
bad and positively dangerous. To take air for heating and 
distribution by hot-air furnaces from the ground level is to 
insure getting with it a great deal of dampness and dirt; to 
take it from subterranean pockets, uncleaned, unsunned, and 
generally neglected, is to make the matter worse. Such air 
is unfit for breathing, and accounts for many diseases of the 
breathing organs, especially in children, among which bron- 
chitis, croup, diphtheritic sore throat, and true diphtheria 
may be included. 

" In the church we have described there are plumbing fixtures 
scattered about. The modern church needs toilet-rooms. The 
fixtures are placed in out of the way corners, in dark closets 
under stairs, and where adequate ventilation for the apart- 
ments containing them is impossible. Indeed, no attempt has 
been made to secure it. The suggestion that this might be 
dangerous was brushed aside by the sexton on the ground 
that they are 'not much used.' These fixtures discharge 
through long and of necessity nearly, if not quite, horizontal 
lead wastes into a common drain under the basement floor, 
which is also a channel for rain-water caught on part of the 
roof. During a heavy shower the rush of water through this 
drain will unseal every trap in the building. Some of the fix- 
tures are not used oftener than perhaps once a month. Mean- 
while thev are forgotten. No provision has been made for 



92 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

flushing these traps, and as a consequence they are either foul 
or dry most of the time. 

"A portion of the basement is used for a lumber room. This 
is usually full of rubbish which has no other function than to 
increase the fire risk. Broken furniture, worn-out hassocks, 
discarded pew cushions, bits of old carpet, dilapidated hymn 
books, and the like are piled up with intervening dust strata 
in great confusion. In this compartment is a small supple- 
mentary furnace for emergency heating, which draws its air- 
supply from the room at the floor level. ^ 

"The church, Sunday school, and lecture room, the prin- 
cipal stairways and passageways, are carpeted. These carpets 
are tacked to the floors, and are taken up for cleaning once 
a year. Between December and June they become extremely 
dirty. Pew cushions are beaten and brushed once a year — 
at other times they are superficially dusted. In none of these 
matters is there any deliberate neglect. The difficulty is that 
they are left to the discretion of the people who do not know 
what the hygiene of a church requires, for whose guidance no 
code of rules has been formulated, and whose work is not 
supervised by any one with a knowledge of how it should be 
done. Behind this negligence, and emphasizing it, are original 
faults of construction, largely the result of a mistaken idea 
on the part of the architect that in church building it is proper 
that everything should be sacrificed to a more or less successful 
imitation of mediaeval standards of construction and decora- 
tion. It is not difficult to understand these preferences of 
the architect; but for practical laymen charged with the man- 
agement of church temporalities it should require no argu- 
ment to show, that the duty of making and keeping church 
buildings safe places of assembly for adults and children is a 
personal obligation, which cannot be delegated to anyone. 
There is no warrant for the notion that because a church is 
occupied only a few hours a week its sanitation is safely neg- 
ligible. Holiness and malaria are not twin sisters, and should 
not be made to go hand in hand." 

Making due allowance for some pardonable exagger- 
ations and some minor inaccuracies, the article quoted 
above is worthy of serious attention of those who 



CHURCH SANITATION. 93 

make a specialty of planning and erecting church build- 
ings. 

When the author, in 1898, presented to the American 
Public Health Association a paper dealing with the 
subject of "Theatre Sanitation," the same was not 
only widely commented upon, but its chief points were 
extended and applied by reviewers to the sanitation 
of churches. Thus, in the Medical Record of Januar}^ 7, 
1899, appeared an editorial, entitled "Sanitation of 
Public Places of Amusement and Churches," from which 
a few quotations appear to be appropriate: 

"The hygienic arrangements of theatres and other places of 
amusement are all the world over disgracefully neglected. The 
importance of the thorough sanitation of schools and similar 
institutions is now fully realized, and no expense or trouble 
is grudged in carefully looking after the bodily as well as the 
mental welfare of the young. Not only do parents insist that 
the schools they select for their sons and daughters should be 
in a good state of sanitary soundness, but those in authority 
evince a praiseworthy disposition to see that the atmosphere 
of the educational establishments is pure and wholesome. It 
is therefore decidedly curious that the greater portion of the 
adult members of the community exhibit a complete indiffer- 
ence towards matters hygienic in connection with theatres and 
music halls. One reasgn for their careless disregard of the 
laws of health is without doubt owing to the fact that a stay 
in a place of amusement is necessarily brief, and that, so long 
as attention is paid to pleasing the eye and ear, it appears to 
be a question of small moment whether the air is healthy or 
foul. Nevertheless, there are signs that the general public are 
becoming more alive to the dangers lurking in theatres and 
establishments of a like nature, and it is probable that in the 
near future the construction of buildings devoted to pleasure 
will be conducted with a due regard to the health of their 
patrons . . . For the most part, theatres, concert halls, and 
places of the same class are but 'whited sepulchres,' externally 



94 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

and internally gorgeous and often artistic, but woefully lack- 
ing in almost every other respect. Many of them have but 
few windows and no means of renewing the air when empty. 
Their location is often in a high degree prejudicial to health. 
In large towns like New York, London, Chicago, where space 
is valuable, such establishments are not infrequently pushed 
in between immense buildings, with scarcely any frontage. 
The sewerage is bad, and indeed Mr. Gerhard says that 'he 
knows of at least one theatre in Greater New York where, each 
time the curtain rises, a strong whiff of sewer air greets the 
audience'. The fact, then, that the system of the sanitary 
arrangements of most places of amusement is altogether wrong 
may be taken as proven, and the question remains, in what 
way can a thorough change for the better be brought about? 
To touch even briefly upon the many points of sanitary reform 
which can and should be effected in the sense-stimulating and 
mind-relaxing establishments of the people, is a subject quite 
too intricate and arduous. However, as to ventilation, the 
opinion of experts would seem to be that the mechanical method 
by propulsion is the only one whereby a theatre can be properly 
aired, and that there should be an allowance of about eighteen 
hundred cubic feet of pure atmosphere per hour for each indi- 
vidual. A person does not care — be the entertainment provided 
for his delectation as excellent as possible — to run the risk of 
being poisoned by foul air. If the public will make a deter- 
mined stand and refuse to sit in an unhealthy building, an 
alteration in the existing condition of affairs will be quickly 
affected. So long as playgoers are indifferent the managers, 
whose sole object would appear to be to make money, will 
allow matters to remain in statu quo. 

"Theatre proprietors are unfortunately not the only sinners 
as regards the health of their congregations. Churches of all 
denominations are in many instances overcrowded and insuffi- 
ciently ventilated. These remarks especially apply to the 
Roman Catholic houses of worship. These are in the majority 
of cases ill-lighted from without and either stuffy or draughty. 
Masses in many of them are held at frequent intervals, at 
which all sorts and conditions of people are present. This is, 
of course, as it should be; but, after all, the worshippers have 
a right to expect that a certain amount of consideration should 
be given to their bodily well-being. At a church, as at a theatre, 



CHURCH SANITATION. 95 

it is impossible to provide a sufficient allowance of pure air 
by means of windows or other openings. Consequently the 
only effective alternative is the mechanical process of ventila- 
tion already referred to. 

"The London Times, in an article written in January 1896, 
refers to the subject of overcrowding in churches thus: 'We 
regard this as a highly objectionable practice in two respects — 
first, on account of the danger of blocking the exits in case 
of panic, and second, because of the injury to health caused 
by cramming a building to its utmost capacity. Churches are 
never too Well ventilated, and there should be a definite limit 
imposed upon the members of the congregation. " Both 
theatres and churches are a long way from being hygienically 
perfect, and it rests with the general public that the necessary 
reforms should be introduced." 

It is not alone in the construction and equipment of 
churches that many sins of omission and commission 
are perpetrated, but in the management of such build- 
ings after their completion much negligence or indiffer- 
ence is apparent. It is very often found that an entire 
and serious disregard to sanitary maintenance exists. 
Witness the following comments which appeared some 
years ago in the New York Independent, under the 
heading "Church Sanitation." 

"Some of the greatest breaches of sanitary law and sanitary 
administration are to be met in our churches. The mere 
sweeping and dusting of a church requires all that care and 
attention which is bestowed by the good housekeeper upon 
her house. Generally this work is committed to men not 
trained in any such service. The carpets and cushions of 
many a church receive but a very rare shaking, and no such 
rubbing and dusting as are necessary to sustain cleanliness. 

"But it is especially in matters of ventilation, heating, and 
lighting that we suffer from the mismanagement of churches. 

"When a congregation is dismissed, the first business of 
the sexton should be a thorough ventilation of the build- 



96 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

ing. This does not mean merely the pushing up of a win- 
dow or two. With the tendency that air has to cling to 
surfaces, and of floating particles to do the same, any crowded 
church needs such thorough flushing with air as can only be 
secured by a very extensive opening of it to the outer air. 
This may not be necessary nor possible between a morning 
and evening service, but it is especially desirable after the 
latter. From inquiry, we believe it to be the more common 
practice for the airing to be left until the day before the Sab- 
bath, and then for it to be done in a very imperfect way. 

"The church is thus left filled with the contaminated air 
for nearly a week. It lacks the advantage of a house that is 
used every day, which gets some ventilation by the opening 
of doors and windows and the passing in and out of occu- 
pants and guests. The stifled air settles about its corners 
and crevices, or sinks along the pews, and is not easy removed 
by the work of the following week. Indeed, there is often 
painstaking not to remove much of it, but to keep it for the 
hasty warming. It is too little realized that the numbers of 
people and the multitudes of lights at evening very rapidly 
exhaust the oxygen from the air. 

"At the close of a day's service there is a reservoir of im- 
pure air, which should be peremptorily turned out-of-doors. 
The day following the Sabbath is the best cleaning and regu- 
lating day for church assembly-rooms. The design of the 
previous afternoon or early Sabbath morning opening should 
not be the removal of foul air, but of any dampness, by let- 
ting in fresh air, and sunshine. It is the proper union of these 
two methods that secures the best condition of air for churches. 

"As all large assembly-rooms are difficult of regulation as to 
draughts, churches should not depend much on window ven- 
tilation during service. If they do, the persons in adjacent 
pews, or those receiving the air on the back of the heads or 
necks, not infrequently take cold. When window ventilation 
is at all relied upon, pieces, or strips, of board should be placed so 
under the lower sash as to make an inlet between the upper 
and lower sashes when the latter is raised and the strip of 
board placed under it. Where windows are open from the top, 
those on the opposite side of the room should be shut, that 
direct draughts may.be prevented. The Tobin system of ven- 
tilation, or some other by which air is admitted through the 



CHURCH SANITATION. 97 

walls and at a height above the heads of persons standing, is 
much better than the usual window ventilation. Openings 
above lamps and chandeliers aid in the removal of foul air, 
but in large rooms not so much as is generally supposed, unless 
there is additional aid to exhaust the room or attic above. 

"Churches suffer much from imperfect modes of heating. 
Often there is an attempt to make one or two furnaces do the 
work which should be distributed among several. It is hard 
to distribute heat from one centre over a large assembly-room. 
When the attempt is made, the furnace is driven at such a 
heat as to introduce air at entirely too high a temperature 
for comfortable diffusion. In the attempt, carbonic oxide 
and various gases of forced combustion are blown in with the 
heated aii. There is also that burnt feeling of the heated air 
so often complained of, and an absence of moisture, which 
makes sudden demands upon individuals as well as upon sur- 
roundings. If most of our churches are to continue to de- 
pend upon furnaces, we are not sure but that fireplaces will 
have to take their places in various corners, as a means of ven- 
tilation. 

"Every sexton needs to make the particular building he 
superintends a study as to its administration. In this he 
must keep clear of notions and of mere sensations. The ther- 
mometer here and there should tell him the actual warmth. 
He should know how to test draughts, and then should not 
be governed by the feelings of others." 

On the other hand, in exceptional instances, the very 
minutest attention is paid in some churches to the 
maintenance of healthful conditions, and as a case in 
point, I quote from an article in the Sanitary Record 
and Journal on "Church Hygiene," the following brief 
statement showing that cleanliness and sanitation are 
receiving, in some quarters, all the attention which 
they deserve. 

"In view of the remarks, recently published in our columns, 
on the relation of the church to sanitation, some information 



98 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

appearing in a ^French journal is not without interest. It 
seems that the Italian Bishop of Fano has sent out a circular 
to the priests of his diocese, directing that in all churches 
immediately after feast-days, on which there have been very 
large congregations, the floors must be , disinfected by means 
of wood saw-dust soaked in a one-tenth percent solution of 
corrosive-sublimate. On ordinary days, they must be fre- 
quently swept, after sprinkling them with water, so as to raise 
no dust. It is further directed that every week, and even 
oftener, the pews and confessionals must be cleaned with 
sponges and cloths moistened with- pure water, and that every 
week, and oftener, if necessary, the grilles of the confessionals 
are to be washed and polished, while the holy-water receptacles 
must be emptied every week, or oftener if necessary, and washed 
with hot water or a solution of corrosive-sublimate. In order, 
that these provisions may be carried out, the Bishop has in- 
stituted a service of inspection, and requires the payment of 
fines into the diocesan treasury for transgression of any of 
these hygienic rules. The journal responsible for the fore- 
going expresses the hope that the Bishop of Fano's example 
will be imitated by church authorities in other countries." 

2. Sanitary Inspection of Churches. — A few years ago, 
in December 1902, the officials of the Health Depart- 
ment of the City of New York made an inspection of 
about two hundred and fifty churches and synagogues 
in the Borough of Manhattan, and this, to my knowledge, 
was the first inspection of the kind ever undertaken by 
such a department. The official report on the inspec- 
tion is probably not accessible, but sufficient was learned 
from it to establish the fact that the result of the inspec- 
tion was an unfavorable one. In fact, conditions were 
found to exist in at least fifty of the churches examined 
of such an unsatisfactory nature as to seriously endanger 
the health of the congregation and of the children at- 
tending the Sunday-school. It is stated that the worst 



CHURCH SANITATION. 99 

conditions were found in some of the older downtown 
churches, which, not being as prosperous as in former 
times, neglected to maintain or instal suitable systems 
of ventilation, sanitation, and sewerage. In comment- 
ing upon these statements, a writer in the New York 
Times mentions that considerations of economy were 
probably the principal cause for the sanitary neglect. 
He cites the deplorable fact that Sunday-school classes 
were held in basements with very imperfect ventila- 
tion, the toilets being in some cases separated from 
the main class-rooms only by thin partitions and not 
being provided with any outside windows. It is no 
wonder that, under such conditions, complaints had 
reached the Health Department officials that children 
had returned from Sunday-school made ill as a result 
of the impure air of the class-rooms. By the same 
inspection, some synagogues on the lower east side of 
New York City were found to be in an extremely un- 
sanitary condition. In some localities the synagogues 
are merely parts of buildings, of which the remaining 
portions are devoted to sleeping quarters on the upper 
floors, and to shops on the ground floor. Many evi- 
dences of a surprising disregard of all considerations of 
sanitary conditions on the part of the church authori- 
ties were discovered. 

It is not necessary to go further into the details re- 
vealed by the examination of the officials, but it is to 
be hoped that the efforts of the Department in improv- 
ing the sanitary condition of the churches of New York, 
by sending formal notices to the Board of Trustees, 
and by informing the pastors of the congregations of 

iU OF C, 



TOO SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

the sanitary defects discovered, will lead to an improve- 
ment in such structures, which is required alike by 
considerations of decency and health. 

In the City of Chicago, the Health Department, 
through its chief sanitary inspector, has recently given 
considerable attention to church ventilation and sani- 
tation. Commenting on the results of his inspections, 
he said among other things: 

"The air in most of the Chicago churches will send people 
to heaven quicker than any of the preaching they listen to. 
The churches, especially the Protestant churches, are locked 
up all the time, with only brief intervals for services. The 
result is that they are never properly ventilated, and the air 
becomes surcharged with germs worse than exist in any theatre 
or wordly place." 

It was also found that conditions were not quite so 
bad in the churches of the Roman Catholic denomina- 
tion and in Episcopalian churches, because the doors 
of these are open more of the time, and are thus given 
an incidental ventilation. 

Much good would be accomplished if the example 
set by the New York and Chicago Health officials would 
be followed by other cities. 

It is a well known fact that clergymen are often 
susceptible to headaches and find themselves com- 
pletely exhausted at the end of a church service, or 
at least at the beginning of the summer vacation. The 
reason for this all-prevailing feeling of lassitude is not 
very far to seek, it being doubtless caused by the often 
intolerable condition of the air breathed during the 
evening services in a crowded church. The effects on 



CHURCH SANITATION. lOi 

the audience of the steady increase of impurities of the 
air are in many cases distinctly perceptible during the 
last part of the minister's sermon, whereas in those 
churches where healthful conditions exist and a per- 
fect system of ventilation is installed, there will be 
found few, if any, drowsy or sleeping people in the 
pews. In the majority of church buildings, ventilation 
is entirely ignored and the only means provided for 
effecting some change of air are the windows in the 
clerestory, and these of course can only be utilized in 
summer time. 

No less an authority than Dr. John S. Billings states in 
his classical work on "Ventilation" that "the churches 
are like theatres as a rule, at least in one respect, namely, 
that they have insufficient and unsatisfactory arrange- 
ments for ventilation. The auditorium is either insuffi- 
ciently heated, at least in very cold weather, or during 
periods of milder weather they become overheated 
when the audience is large. Complaints of unpleasant 
draughts are very frequent. Special arrangements for 
the uniform distribution of a sufficient amount of pure, 
warmed air throughout the auditorium are only to be 
found in some special instances where either the archi- 
tect paid particular attention to this subject, or where 
a special heating and ventilating engineer was entrusted 
with the problem." 

In an excellent little treatise on "Ventilation and 
Warming," published in London in the year 1894, 
the late author, Ernest H. Jacob, makes a plea for the 
employment of engineering specialists in the different 
branches in the following words: 



I02 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"Through the rapid increase of knowledge on sanitary sub- 
jects, the architectural profession has burdens laid on it heavier 
than it can bear, and it is only by co-operation of architectural 
and sanitary experts that we can hope to erect buildings on 
a level, not only with the artistic taste, but also with the sani- 
tary knowledge of the day. . . . 

"It is not long since an architect of Antwerp actually refused 
to carry out the erection of a town hospital, because the Hos- 
pital Committee would not appoint an engineer to consider 
the plans with him with regard to heating and ventilation, 
before the foundations were laid." 

3. Application of the Principles of Sanitation to 
Churches. — Church hygiene comprises the practical appli- 
cation of the general principles of sanitation to church 
buildings. The subject is an extensive one, and only 
the more important matters can be mentioned here. The 
building of churches is, as a rule, placed in the hands of 
Committees, composed of laymen who are without pre- 
vious experience in such work, and often even without 
a general knowledge of any kind of building enterprise. 
It is, therefore, all the more important that the Com- 
mittee should place reliance upon the professional advice 
given them by their architect. A competent and well 
informed architect will surely impress them with the 
importance of sanitation, and tell them that the often- 
heard excuse that "a church is occupied only a few 
hours a week, hence its sanitation may be neglected," 
cannot be considered a valid one. It should also be 
his duty to point out that rather than put a consider- 
able amount of money into expensive stained glass, 
sculptures, paintings, bronzes, and other works of art, 
screens, furniture, and ecclesiastical fittings, it is wise 
to spend some money for efficient ventilation. 



CHURCH SANITATION. 103 

4. Building Site. — The site for a church should be cen- 
tral and convenient of access by the various transpor- 
tation routes. It is desirable that a church edifice be 
located at a proniinent street corner. In European 
cities one often finds such buildings located on open 
squares, a precedent, which, however desirable it may 
seem, cannot be followed in our cities owing to the 
high value of land. The size of the lot should be 
ample for the requirements of the congregation, and 
it should permit of the location, not only of a church 
building, but in some cases of other buildings required 
in connection with the same, such as the parish house, 
the minister's house, and the Sunday-school. Where- 
ever it can be done, it is desirable to have some open 
space around a church or between its buildings, as 
this will not only enhance the architectural effect, but 
will secure better air and light. It is not difficult to 
embellish such open spaces with landscape gardening 
in keeping with the objects of the building. 

5. Plan and Construction. — Many churches are built 
with only one story and thereby gain the advantage 
of greater ease of access and of less danger in case of 
fire and panic. A few churches are built with a base- 
ment story entirely above ground, but the majority 
of churches have, in addition to the main floor, a base- 
ment or cellar, located partly below the grade level. 
This cellar or basement is required for the installation 
of the heating apparatus, for fuel storage, and for the 
location of the gas or the electric meters. The Sunday- 
school is in many churches located in the basement, 
but such a location can only be tolerated from a sani- 



IC4 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

tary point of view when the soil is perfectly dry and 
the basement made damp-proof. 

The plan of the building is in most cases that of a 
rectangle, but in a few instances it is square; the 
larger cathedrals are usually built in cruciform shape. 
In such a building, the principal room or hall is the 
auditorium, or the place where the congregation meets 
for worship and for the observance of religious ser- 
vices and ceremonies. The seats for the worshippers 
are arranged in the nave, and sometimes in the tran- 
sept of the church, and in addition there must be a 
place for the choir, besides the chancel with sanctuary 
and altar. In connection with the main auditorium 
we must consider the entrances, vestibules, the stairs 
and the gallery. The gallery is provided to gain addi- 
tional seating capacity for special occasions of larger 
attendance, though in some denominations, and not- 
ably in some of the Jewish buildings of this class, a 
separation of the men and women is made, and the 
women are assigned to the gallery. 

Where the plan of the church provides for a Sunday- 
school adjoining the auditorium, the gallery is some- 
times omitted and in this case increased seating capacity 
is gained by opening the doors between the two. In 
large churches a number of other rooms may be re- 
quired, notably the study for the pastor with an adjoin- 
ing toilet-room, a choir-room, a robing-room, a special 
meeting-room for the trustees, a lecture-room or chapel, 
and a ladies' parlor. The social features of a church 
society require a good deal of consideration, and in addi- 
tion to the rooms mentioned we find sometimes a read- 



CHURCH SANITATION. 105 

ing-room, a drill-room, and in a recreation building 
bowling alleys with lavatory and gymnasium, with 
baths and lockers. 

6. Precautions against Fire and Panic. — But few 

churches are built thoroughly fireproof, hence we always 
find in the published tables which give the annual loss 
by fire, a number of churches. " Surely there is some- 
thing wrong in the materials used in church building," 
said a writer in the New York Times after the destruc- 
tion of St. Thomas' Church in New York City in 1905, 
"if they can flare up and go up in smoke. ... Is it 
not possible to substitute non-combustible materials for 
the galleries, pews and inner walls?'* 

At special church festivals there is considerable over- 
crowding, hence the danger from panic and from fire 
is ever present. The blocking of the exit doors, in 
case of panic, would be particularly serious and hence 
much attention should be given to the planning of the 
entrances and exits. They should be commodious and 
sufficient, in width and in number, to empty a church 
quickly. Large churches should have more than one 
entrance, and there should always be a special entrance 
for the Sunday-school. The main exit doors should 
be hung so as to open outward, to avoid a jam in case 
of a panic* The inner vestibule doors may be hung 
on double-acting spring hinges. The vestibules should 
be spacious and capable of holding a large crowd. 

Where there is a gallery, the stairs leading up to it 



* See Wm. Paul Gerhard, "Theatre Fires, and Panics: Their 
Causes and Prevention," 



io6 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

should be wide, without windows, and with a con- 
venient proportion between risers and treads. Where 
there is an attic over the church auditorium it should 
always be made accessible by stairs, as it will necessarily 
contain the distributing lines for the gas cluster lights 
and the electric wire conduits. 

To enable the quick emptying of a church after ser- 
vices it is further important that the aisles should be 
of sufficient width. These should never be less than 
from four to five feet wide, this depending upon the 
size of the church, and the arrangement of tapering 
aisles, which has been suggested, has much to recom- 
mend it. It is usual to have a central aisle and in 
addition to the same some times side aisles. The centre 
aisles, which are necessary in the case of certain religious 
ceremonies, have both advantages and disadvantages, 
but whether centre aisles or two main side aisles are 
used, the chief requirement is always that they can be 
reached quickly from the seats, and that they are suffi- 
ciently wide to enable persons to get out of doors quickly. 

7. Seating. — The arrangements of the seats depend 
principally upon the shape of the auditorium and upon 
the location of the aisles and exits. The seating may 
be arranged straight or in a curve, and it is of import- 
ance that the spacing between the rows of seats should 
be generous, to facilitate the moving of the people. 
For the comfort of the church-goers it is desirable that 
ample floor space should be allowed for the seats or 
chairs and it is usual to make this allowance more liberal 
in churches than in the case of other lecture-rooms. 
For these it is usual to provide a floor space of six square 



CHURCH SANITATION. 107 

feet for each chair, but for the seats in the church audi- 
torium the allowance made is from seven to eight square 
feet. The floors of the auditorium are either level, 
inclined, or bowled. 

8. Dust in Carpets and Seat Cushions. — It is customary 
to cover at least a portion of the floor, and also the 
aisles and stairs an,d passages, with heavy carpets and 
these as well as the hair or felt cushions in the pews, 
with their coverings of plush or other material, accu- 
mulate in course of time a large amount of dust, which 
interferes with proper ventilation. It is important 
that the carpets, as well as the seats, should be cleaned, 
swept and dusted every week and it is hardly necessary 
to state that this should be done in a judicious manner, 
in such a way that the dust is not scattered through- 
out the air, but that it may be properly removed. The 
floors require cleaning and scrubbing, for much dirt and 
dust is carried in by the shoes of persons and by their 
overshoes in case of muddy streets. At regular periods 
the floors should be washed by means of some disin- 
fecting solution; this is of particular importance after 
church festival days. The same remarks apply of 
course also to the Sunday-school rooms, which require 
perhaps even greater care, owing to the large number 
of young children assembled weekly therein. 

9. Artificial Lighting of Churches. — The artificial light- 
ing of churches is accomplished by means of gas lights, 
electric incandescent lights, and sometimes by candles. 
Both candles and gas burners cause a very rapid deteri- 
oration of the air, whereas the electric light offers many 
advantages in churches as in theatres and other places 



io8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

of assembly. The reflector ceiling lights, being usually 
in inaccessible positions, should preferably be electric 
lights, but where gas fixtures must be used, the jets 
should be lighted by means of electric gas lighting con- 
trolled from some central point in the gallery. 

ID. Heating and Ventilation. — Heating and ventilation 
are two problems of vital importance in the case of 
churches, and as a rule it is well to consider them 
together. Until recently, this subject has been con- 
siderably neglected, and in one architectural publica- 
tion on the building of churches I find the subject of 
ventilation not even mentioned. In another book on 
Church Architecture the misleading sentence occurs: 
"the problem of ventilation is a comparatively simple 
one for churches." (?) As a matter of fact, the sub- 
ject of ventilating and warming large halls of assembly 
is quite a difficult one. 

Regarding the heating of churches, it should be borne 
in mind that the persons who attend the churches 
are usually dressed for walking, hence a lower tem- 
perature seems permissible in some cases than is re- 
quired in theatres or concert halls, where many of the 
people sit for hours in full evening dress. In some 
churches, where services are held on Sunday only, it 
is still the practice not to warm the church during the 
week, but the majority of churches have also week -day 
services, and there are many reasons why it seems 
desirable that such a building should be constantly 
warmed during the winter season. In the first place, 
cold down draughts are much more keenly felt in 
churches which are heated only for Sunday service. 



CHURCH SANITATION. 109 

Then again, the plumbing would be very apt to freeze 
and cause trouble, damage, and expense. Finally, the 
organ of the church requires a continuous heating 
because it will otherwise immediately get out of tune. 
"It is not generally known," says a writer, "how 
much the organ in a church is affected by temperature. 
Ten degrees of temperature above that at which an 
organ is tuned will serve to introduce the most hor- 
rible discord in an instrument which had been per- 
fectly tuned." 

The heating of churches is accomplished by means 
of furnaces, or else by steam or hot-water radiation. 
In the case of smaller country chapels the heating is 
sometimes done by means of stoves, but these are not 
to be recommended, except they are arranged as ven- 
tilating stoves. If it were not for the requirements 
of ventilation, it would not be. very difficult to warm 
a church building properly, but the requirements of 
ventilation signify that large volumes of fresh air must 
be warmed to a suitable temperature, before being 
admitted into the auditorium, and this is where both 
the difficulty and the expense begin. In the case of 
larger buildings, where one hot-air furnace would not 
be sufficient, it is generally found to be more economical 
to arrange for a system of direct and indirect steam 
radiation, or for a "hot-blast" system. Hot-water 
heating can be used only in those buildings which are 
kept warm during the entire winter season, otherwise 
the hot- water apparatus would soon freeze. 

In all buildings, where many persons congregate, 
the problem of ventilation should receive the greatest 



no SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

attention, but it is unfortunately true that but few 
churches are satisfactorily ventilated, while a good 
many of them are either stuffy or draughty. Perfect 
ventilation would require the provision of thirty cubic 
feet of fresh air per minute per person, but owing to 
the fact that a church is occupied for a comparatively 
short period of time it may seem permissible to make 
a somewhat lower allowance. The minimum allow- 
ance should be six-hundred cubic feet per person per 
hour. This fresh air should be taken preferably not 
from near the ground or from basement areas, but 
from a higher point, and in the case of churches the 
tower or steeple is quite often made to serve as an 
inlet for fresh air. The air, after being suitably warmed, 
should bfc then distributed throughout the auditorium, 
and to accomplish this it is necessary that it should 
be admitted at a great ijumber of points. Floor regis- 
ters are always objectionable and a good arrangement 
is to locate the air inlets at the sides of the pews. 

Besides introducing pure air, it is necessary to re- 
move the air which has been spoiled by respiration, 
and by the lighting with gas, and this removal of the 
foul air can be accomplished by different methods. 
During cold weather it does not seem feasible to open 
the windows during the service to let the foul air out, 
and it is necessary to provide other means. Some ven- 
tilation may be accomplished by means of vent-shafts 
or vent-flues, but unless these are artificially heated 
they will seldom work well. Where boilers are used, 
it is generally feasible to locate the smoke-stack in 
the centre of a large brick chimney built for aspiration 



CHURCH SANITATION. iii 

and in this way to produce a constant upward draught. 
Other methods consist in placing steam-pipe coils in 
the flues above the vent registers or else to use gas jets. 
A much superior system consists in artificial ventila- 
tion by mechanical means and here, the same as in the 
case of theatres, two methods may be distinguished, 
namely the exhaust or vacuum and the plenum method. 
In the latter system, the pure warmed air is forced 
into the auditorium under a slight pressure. This has 
some considerable advantages, because in case of leaky 
windows the leakage is outward and thus unpleasant 
draughts, such as are common in the exhaust method, 
are avoided. In addition to operating such a system 
of mechanical ventilation it seems desirable, some 
hours before and after each service, to flush the church 
with pure out-door air by opening all the available 
windows. Ventilation and proper airing are of particu- 
lar importance in those churches where more than one 
service is held in a day, especially so in our large cities, 
where all kinds and classes of people — the clean as well 
as the unwashed — congregate. 

II. Basements or Cellars. — Particular attention should 
be given to the basement or the cellar of a church, 
which places are often found to be dark, damp, and 
musty, and are at times made the receptacle of dis- 
carded furniture or other waste material. When the 
Sunday-school, or any lecture- or meeting-room are 
necessarily placed in the basement, the greatest pre- 
cautions should be taken to secure a dry and light 
basement. The floor should in all cases be concreted 
or even waterproofed with asphalt. 



112 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Where toilet-rooms are provided, these are generally 
placed in the basement, and this is another reason 
why the basement requires particular and constant 
attention. Where it is partly underground, the win- 
dows are as a rule provided with areas for the better 
lighting of the rooms. These areas should be kept 
thoroughly clean, and those which occur on the street 
front of buildings, should be swept and flushed with a 
hose, because a large accumulation of street dirt, sweep- 
ings, and litter are apt to accumulate in such sunken 
areas. It is never advisable to open the cold-air boxes 
or air-supply inlets for the heating apparatus of what- 
ever kind at such areas, but where they must necessarily 
be so located, it is advisable not to have the area cess- 
pools, no matter how well trapped they may be, con- 
nected with the sewer. 

In connection with the Sunday-school rooms there 
may be one . or more cloak-rooms for the outer gar- 
ments, overshoes, and for wet umbrellas. Some pre- 
cautions should be exercised to avoid either dampness 
or disagreeable odors arising fom such places. 

12. Sewerage and Plumbing. — The plumbing and the 
sewerage of a church should, of course, be of the best 
kind, constructed with first-class materials and ar- 
ranged in accordance with the modern rules of house 
drainage. Two dangers exist with plumbing in churches, 
both of which may be guarded against by judicious 
management. One danger is that some of the fixtures 
will not be used much and hence that the water-seal in 
the traps may evaporate; the other danger consists in 
the possible freezing up of the plumbing pipes and traps. 



CHURCH SANITATION. tt^ 

An efficient and intelligent chnrch janitor would have 
no difficulty in dealing with these problems. 

On account of the social functions connected with 
church work it is often required to have a well equipped 
kitchen and a serving-room adjoining the ladies' parlor. 
These require one or more sinks with hot and cold 
water, a gas or coal range, and possibly a hot-water 
boiler or gas-wa.ter heater.* 

In Baptist churches a baptistry is always provided 
in connection with one or more dressing-rooms. This 
is a special tank, from 6 to 8 feet long, 4 to 5 feet wide, 
and 3 to 4 feet deep, intended for the immersion of 
persons. It may be constructed of wood and lined 
with copper, or of galvanized iron, and it requires waste- 
and overflow-pipes and hot and cold supply-pipes, 
also a hot-water heater adapted to these special require- 
ments. In the case of wealthy Baptist congregations, 
the baptistry generally consists of a more elaborate mar- 
ble pool. 

In the arrangement of the toilet-rooms, the general 
requirements outlined for other classes of buildings 
should be followed and the chief of these are simplicity 



* A somewhat novel church building has just been completed 
on the corner of Fifty-sixth Street an'd Broadway in New York 
City. This costly structure is said to contain, besides the large 
auditorium, two chapels, a score of Sunday-school rooms, men's 
club rooms, women's parlors, and accommodates a total of 
6,000 persons at one time. An additional parish house is ten 
stories high. The church contains also a museum for ecclesi- 
astic relics, a safe deposit vault, and in the basement a theatre 
stage, with amphitheatre, having seating capacity for 600 per- 
sons, boxes, and dressing rooms 



TI4 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

in arrangement, avoidance of noise, and perfect ven- 
tilation. 

A larger amount of plumbing fixtures is usually pro- 
vided for in synagogues than in churches, for the rea- 
son that some of the services of the Hebrews require 
the constant attendance in the place of worship during 
an entire day. This requires separate toilet-rooms for 
men and for women, for boys and for girls, in addi- 
tion to drinking fountains. It may be here pointed out 
that in some of the older synagogues of some European 
cities there are special purifying baths for women pro- 
vided, which are required by the religious rites of the 
orthodox Jews. 

Many matters have in the preceding pages been merely 
hinted at, but it is believed that enough has been said 
to demonstrate that the health of congregations demands 
a proper attention to the subject of sanitation, and 
that indifference to church hygiene by those at the 
head of such institutions, must at the present day be 
considered inexcusable. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

There are a few books on "Church Architecture," but none of 
them discuss the subject of "Sanitation." Inquiry among 
several publishers, failed to discover any American book 
on Church Hygiene. Neither are there available any Ger- 
man books on the subject. 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



IV 



SCHOOL SANITATION 

I. Definition of Terms. — School hygiene and school 
sanitation are not to be considered synonymous terms, 
for the former comprises a much wider range of sub- 
jects than the latter. 

School hygiene deals with every possible aspect of 
school life, so far as the same may affect the health 
of the children ; it includes subjects such as the periods 
of study, the care of the eyes of pupils, the posture of 
children in school, curricula of studies, methods of teach- 
ing, school discipline, medical school inspection, and 
school diseases. 

School sanitation, on the other hand, refers to the 
school building only, to its location and construction, 
its equipment and sanitation. School hygiene is there- 
fore a broader term than school sanitation. 

The contents of this chapter will be restricted to the 
latter meaning, and will deal more particularly with 
the safety and sanitary features of school buildings. 
A brief resume of some German maxims on school sani- 
tation, which the author published some years ago, 
are substantially embodied in the pages of this chapter, 
and form the basis for the same. 

117 



ii8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILT)INGS. 

2. School Sanitation. — Everything pertaining to gen- 
eral house sanitation is, of course, apphcable to school 
sanitation, with this particular distinction, that in the 
case of school buildings we are providing for children 
whose bodies are in a process of growth and development 
and, for this reason, are perhaps more susceptible to 
outside causes tending to affect their health and also 
more subject to illness. Growing youth requires the 
best sanitary environment to guard it against illness, 
because defects in the construction, sanitation or 
equipment of schools may injure children for a long time, 
in some cases even for life. 

The importance of sanitary school buildings for 
the bodily and mental improvement of children is being 
more and more appreciated. School houses differ from 
dwelling-houses in having a very large number of children 
congregated together for many hours each day, and 
this is another reason why the closest attention should 
be given, in the planning and construction of schools, 
to their sanitation, ventilation, and means for cleanli- 
ness. The largest school-houses, which sometimes hold 
from I GOO to 3000 children, present difficult and impor- 
tant hygienic and mechanical problems, which must 
be carefully dealt with. 

This chapter treats of school buildings in general. 
It disregards entirely the usual sub-divisions of schools 
into primary, grammar, and high school; the classi- 
fication into manual training schools, polytechnic 
schools, and other higher schools of learning, such as 
seminaries, colleges, and universities. Space also for- 
bids dealing separately with the public and the pri- 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 119 

vate schools; with boys', girls', and co-educational 
schools. 
. I shall take up first the question of location and site 
of school buildings; and after that I shall discuss the 
building itself, its plan and construction, number of 
stories, its safety from fire and the disposition of the 
rooms. Next in order will be a consideration of the 
school-room proper; and following it, special subjects 
of interior mechanical equipment, comprising heating 
and ventilation, lighting, sanitary arrangements, water 
supply, school baths, outside sewerage, and sewage 
disposal will be discussed; finally there are questions 
of management, such as maintenance of cleanliness, 
sanitary inspections, together with some general sani- 
tary considerations. 

Location or Site. 

3. Choice of Site. — The question of a choice of site for 
a building is always an important one, but for reasons 
above stated it is particularly so in the case of school- 
houses. The site for a school-building must be care- 
fully chosen, and all possible drawbacks and disad- 
vantages must be examined into or anticipated. The 
site should be elevated, reasonably level, though with 
sufficient slope on one or more sides, if possible, to 
facilitate good drainage; it should be open, airy, and 
dry. Regarding the size of a lot for school purposes, 
this should be large enough to allow the building to 
stand back from the street and to provide plenty of 
playground, open spaces, or yards with some shade 
trees. 



I20 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

4. Area of School Grounds. — The German standard 
provides an area of school grounds equivalent to three 
square meters for every child, and in England the 
standard seems to be about the same, namely 30 square 
feet. Thus, for a school intended to house 1000 pupils 
the lot should measure 30,000 square feet; in other 
words it should be about 300 by 100, or 150 by 200 feet. 
A large lot secures not only a recreation ground, gen- 
erous in size, but it also provides for good lighting of 
the school rooms, as no over-shadowing from adjoining 
buildings can occur. 

5. SoiL^A porous soil, such as sand or gravel, is the 
best. In all cases the ground should be well-drained and 
free from organic matter. No made ground or filled-in 
lot should be selected for school purposes. Swampy 
land is equally out of the question. The healthful- 
ness of a school site is of so much importance that 
ordinary real estate considerations should under no 
circumstances govern the choice, and School Boards 
would do well, whenever they have to make a selec- 
tion, to make it under the expert advice of a practical 
sanitarian. 

6. Surroundings. — The surroundings of the school- 
house are of the greatest importance, and hence the ex- 
amination of a site should always include an inspection 
of the neighboring lots. Noisy surroundings or noxious 
manufactures should always be avoided. A school 
building should stand in a nearly central location in 
reference to the school population or the school district, 
but it should be placed away from noise, dust, soot, 
smoke, or polluted air. Hence it should not be placed 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 121 

on a main city street, nor should it be located near 
industrial establishments, near a railroad depot or 
freight yard. The quiet side streets should be selected 
by preference. A school-house should never be built 
in the immediate vicinity of factories, smoke-creating 
establishments, noisy workshops, stables, hotels, mili- 
tary barracks, or markets, or near fire-engine houses, 
police stations, or hospitals. In a city a school-house 
should hot be located adjoining a high building, as this 
would rob it of much necessary light. A street with 
noisy pavement should also be avoided, likewise filthy 
neighborhoods, or open and filthy yards which drain 
toward the school grounds. 

In cities where the price of real estate is high, the 
choice of site is usually very much restricted, and sani- 
tary requirements are difficult to comply with in the 
larger cities, where the selection often becomes very 
limited. 

For country school buildings the neighborhood of 
swamps, or of stagnant water, should be avoided. The 
question of water supply and drainage form an impor- 
tant consideration when investigating a site. In rural 
districts a school-house is often found to be located 
at the outskirts of a village, this location being made 
necessary by reason of the requirement to place the 
school in the centre of the district. 

7. Aspect. — Regarding the aspect of the school-house, 
the buildings should be so placed as to secure some 
sunlight for all rooms, for sunless rooms are apt to be 
damp and cheerless. In Germany, school-house build- 
ings are placed as much as possible, with regards to the 



122 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

points of the compass, so that the windows of the class- 
rooms will face the northeast or else the east. In case 
the rooms are located on both sides of a corridor, the 
windows are made to face northwest and southeast, 
and no windows are placed to the southwest. The latter 
aspect is only considered admissible for schools in 
which in the summer no teaching is done in the after- 
noon. A northerly aspect avoids the glaring sunlight 
during school hours, and while it is cold and bleak in 
winter, it is good for the lighting of the rooms and 
particularly good for drawing-rooms. As a rule, an 
easterly J southerly, or southeasterly exposure is pre- 
ferred in the United States, and the westerly is con- 
sidered to be the least desirable. 

8. Trees on School Grounds. — If the lot permits of it, 
a school building should be set back on all sides so as to 
have a free air circulation, and so as to avoid the dust 
and noise of the street. Trees should never be 'nearer 
than 20 or 25 feet from the school building; if placed 
at a greater distance than mentioned, they are ad- 
vantageous for they afford shelter from the sun on the 
playground, and also because they form the best 
obtainable ornamentation of the grounds. 

9. Beautifying School Grounds.— In cities, the school 
grounds are generally so small as not to permit the 
planting of trees, but in country schools the cultiva- 
tion of trees should always be encouraged. Suburban 
and country schools often have their grounds carefully 
laid out with grass plots, flower beds, and shade trees. 
Money used in making school grounds attractive and 
beautiful is always well spent, and where ' the school 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 123 

grounds are large a map of the same should be pre- 
pared and a number of trees located on the same, the 
trees being planted by the children on succeeding 
"arbor days." Such school yards form the best pos- 
sible place for nature study; they teach the children 
the different kinds of trees and shrubs, and thus they 
learn at an early age how to care for them. 

10. Playgrounds. — Playgrounds should be located on 
the sunny side of. the building, and should be dry and 
sheltered from the winds. In the centre a pavilion 
should be provided, protected by being roofed over 
but kept open at the sides, for the use of the pupils 
in case of stormy weather. The yards should be kept 
dry and well drained. Cemented or flagged walks 
should lead to the principal entrances ofc the school, 
but otherwise the playgrounds should be finished with 
lawns or with soft clean gravel or cinders. In the case 
of city school-houses, located in congested districts, 
outside playgrounds cannot often be had, and in such 
a case a substitute may be arranged by providing play- 
grounds on the roof of the building. 

The School Building. 

According to Morrison, the essential general require- 
ments of school buildings are: shelter, adequate space, 
good construction, lighting, heating, and ventilation, 
sanitation, suitable interior equipment, and chaste 
decoration. 

11. Construction. — Regarding the construction of 
school-houses, it may be said, in general, that school- 
houses should be built of the best and most durable mate- 



124 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

rials and of thorough and substantial workmanship. 
Next to good construction come the requirements of 
proper sanitation, adequate heating and ventilation 
and correct lighting. A well constructed building will 
in the end always prove economical, for the reason that 
in this class of buildings there is perhaps more wear and 
tear than in any other class. It would be exceeding 
the limits of this chapter to discuss in detail the con- 
struction of foundations, of exterior and partition walls, 
of ceiling, roofs, and chimneys. 

12. Safety from Fire. — Security against fire should 
always be one of the chief considerations. Where so 
many children are congregated, the danger of fire or panic 
is always present and must be suitably guarded against. 
For this reason all school-houses, located in city streets, 
should be built of brick and of fire-resisting construction, 
for ' frame structures would be too much in danger of 
fire. Isolated school-houses in the country do not re- 
quire brick or stone walls, but every possible precaution 
should be taken to make them at least slow-burning. 

13. Boiler Room. — A school-house should always be 
provided with a basement or cellar under the entire 
building. In this the boiler and coal room are located, 
and also sometimes the play-grounds, lavatories, toilet- 
rooms, and school baths. The floor of the basement 
should be free from dampness, and be asphalted and 
made waterproof. 

14. Walls. — All walls of class-rooms should be smoothly 
plastered and the lower part finished in hard plaster. 
Inside walls of corridors, toilet-rooms, cloak-rooms, etc., 
may be finished with enameled brick or tiles. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 125 

It is important that all cornices should be well rounded 
and that there should be no moldings or ledges to catch 
dust. 

15. Ceilings and Floors. — The ceilings should be strong, 
fire-proof, and sound-proof, and the latter requirement 
is, of course, equally true of the floors. These should 
be stiff, constructed of an under floor of spruce, covered 
with narrow oak or other hardwood boards; the floors 
should be without vibration and with deafening between 
the joists. The floors should be either painted or 
well oiled.- All corners between floors and walls should 
be finished with round coves. Wooden floors for base- 
ment rooms should be laid on sleepers, bedded in cement. 

16. Entrances. — The entrances should have covers or 
large protected vestibules, where those children, who 
arrive early, may stand protected from the weather. 
Exposed entrance steps should be avoided, as they 
become dangerous in winter time, when covered with 
ice. The entrance doors should alwa3^s open outward, 
as should also the doors of the class-rooms. 

17. Corridors. — The corridors should not be too narrow, 
particularly when the pupils' wardrobes are located in 
them. A desirable width is from 10 to 12 feet. They 
should have floors of wood, covered with linoleum, or 
else the much better tile floors. All corridors should 
be properly heated and well lighted. Where class- 
rooms are located on both sides of a corridor, windows 
should be put at each end. 

18. Staircases. — The chief requirements of the stairs 
are that they should be fireproof, strong, and safely built, 
well lighted and preferably enclosed by fire walls; the 



126 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

open well stairs should be avoided. There should be 
no winding steps and each long flight of stairs should 
be interrupted with at least one landing. There should 
be a rail on either side of the stairs and very wide stairs 
should have a centre rail. In large buildings there 
should always be at least two staircases. 

19. Exits. — The corridors, stairs, exit doors, and exits 
should be planned so ample as to permit of the entire 
emptying of the school in from 3 to 4 minutes. 

20. Disposition of Class-rooms. — The planning or the 
disposition of the rooms of the school building depends 
upon many considerations, and chiefly upon whether 
the building is to be erected for both boys and girls, 
or only for children of one sex. 

In general, a symmetrical plan will be the best and 
there should be a corridor running the length of the 
building, with the classroom located at one or both 
sides of the same. There should be a sufficient num- 
ber of staircases for the safe and quick exit of the 
children in case of a panic or fire. 

21. Number of Floors. — The number of floors depends 
upon the requirements and on the number of pupils 
to be accommodated. It should be said, however, 
that buildings of more than three stories are not to 
be approved, for the stair climbing is injurious, par- 
ticularly to the older girls, and there is always the 
danger of loss of life, in case of a panic or fire. In 
congested city districts, such as the east side of New 
York, one may of sheer necessity be obliged to put up 
a ten-story building, as recently planned, but on gen- 
eral principles such a plan can never be approved, 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 127 

for even with the largest and safest elevators it is not 
clear how a school-house containing 5000 pupils could 
be emptied sufficiently quick in case of an outbreak 
of fire. It is bad enough to have a city made ugly 
by the erection of commercial monstrosities in the 
shape of skyscraping office buildings and hotels. Sky- 
scraper schools are, in my judgment, hazardous and 
ill-conceived, and the proposition to erect them should 
be dismissed as impracticable and absolutely dangerous. 
For suburban and country schools it is decidedly 
better to limit the number of stories to two or three, in 
which latter case the important class-rooms are located 
in the lower stories, whereas the top floor may con- 
tain the assembly hall, or may be used for a gymnasium, 
or for classes in manual and physical training. 

22. Basement. — A high, well-lighted basement is es- 
sential; its clear height should never be less than from 
10 to 12 feet. A well constructed basement, with 
windows half above the grade line, and with a proper 
air supply, should be as sanitary as any other part 
of the building. If the basement is dry and well lighted, 
a part of it can be used for recreation or playrooms, for 
cooking classes, for the gymnasium and for some school 
baths for children of both sexes. There should also be 
a janitor's workroom. The boiler and coal room floors 
should always be well cemented or finished with a 
brick pavement. These rooms should be enclosed 
with brick fire walls, and the doors should be stout 
wooden doors, lined on both sides with tin. 

23. Fire Escapes. — In buildings of more than two 
stories, outside fire stairs, not merely fire ladders, should be 



128 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

provided in addition to the inside staircases, but they 
must be properly designed and constructed, and should 
always be covered in from the weather so that they 
can be used by the children in times of danger. 

24. Sewerage. — The building should be well sewered 
and drained. All plumbing should be the best obtaina- 
ble, both in workmanship and in the character of the 
fixtures. Regarding its general arrangement, the same 
rules of drainage that are used for other buildings apply. 
In the city, the school-house should have connection 
with a city sewer, whereas for country school buildings, 
not within reach of a sewer, other safe and sanitary 
methods are now-a-days available, a brief reference to 
which will be made further on. 

25. Assembly and Special Rooms. — In addition to the 
number of class-rooms required, there should be a large 
assembly-room, capable of seating the entire number 
of pupils, also teachers' rooms, an ofhce for the prin- 
cipal, teachers' toilet -rooms and specially well-ven- 
tilated cloak-rooms for the pupils. The principal's 
room should be located central and convenient of access. 
Regarding the assembly-room, which is often located 
on the top floor, it has been suggested that the best 
position for the same is on the ground floor, in a central 
rear wing of the school. From the point of view of 
danger, in case of a panic, the suggestion deserves 
much consideration. 

In high schools, provision should be made, besides 
class-rooms, for physical and chemical laboratories. 
They should be fitted up with numerous shelves and 
demonstration tables and should be piped for water, 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 129 

gas, steam, compressed air, and waste-pipes. In 
chemical laboratories, special gas-hoods with exhaust 
flues must be provided for the removal of noxious 
gases. 

26. Exterior of Building. — The exterior of a building, 
devoted to the causes of education, should be well-pro- 
portioned, dignified but plain, and expressive of the 
character of the work for which it is erected. All 
needless and meaningless ornamentation of the build- 
ing should be avoided. If some money is available 
for beautifying a school, I hold that it is preferable 
to spend it on inside decoration and for the improve- 
ment and beautifying or the grounds. 

27. Interior Decoration. — Appropriate, simple, and re- 
fined decorations should be used to adorn the class- 
rooms and the principal corridors. The walls should 
be rendered attractive by hanging on them some framed 
pictures, photographs, color prints, or photogravures 
of objects relating to history, the fine arts, the natural 
sciences or to landscapes. There should also be some 
good topographical or physical wall maps of the prin- 
cipal countries of the world, also a good-sized globe. A 
few plaster casts of well-known sculptures, some vases, 
and flower pots, a bookcase with choice books of refer- 
ence, histories, cyclopedias, — all these help, more than 
anything else, to adorn the school interior. 

Carpets, upholstered furniture, lace curtains, draperies 
or heavy portieres are out of place in a school, and 
objectionable from a sanitary point of view. 



I30 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

The School-room. 

28. Shape and Dimensions of Class-rooms. — The 

school-room forms the unit in planning a school building, 
much the same as a ward forms the unit in a hospital. 
A school building should be considered as a number 
of class-rooms, properly arranged and connected by 
means of the halls and stairs with the entrances and 
exits, rather than as a whole building cut up into a 
number of rooms. By this statement I mean to em- 
phasize the fact that the shape and the dimensions of 
the school-room are all important, and that in order 
to attain perfection, it is necessary to determine these 
first, rather than to determine the size of the building 
and afterwards to leave it to chance to get class-rooms 
of a shape and size as they may happen to come. 

Numerous attempts have been made, by writers on 
school sanitation, to determine the best dimensions for 
a class-room. A standard size necessarily depends 
upon numerous considerations, such as lighting, ven- 
tilation, heating, physical requirements, needs and 
capacities of children and teachers. 

29. Standard Shape. — In general shape, a class-room 
should be oblong rather than square, and the desks 
should be so placed that the aisles between them run 
the long way, in other words, longer classes are better 
than wide classes. In the interest of the eye-sight and 
of the hearing of the scholars, and on the other hand 
of the lungs and vocal organs of the teachers il is ad- 
visable not to exceed certain maximum dimensions of 
length, width or depth and height. In the interest of 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 131 

the general control of discipline by the teachers it is 
likewise to be recommended to limit the sizes of rooms 
and the number of children in one class to about 45 
pupils. Experienced teachers hold the view that a 
class of 50, 60, or even more pupils is very hard to 
control. 

30. Length. — The length of a school room is best deter- 
mined by the distance at which an ordinary voice can 
be clearly heard, and likewise by the distance at which 
ordinary blackboard writing can be seen by the normal 
eye of the pupil. This distance is variously assumed 
to be from 28 to 32 feet. 

31. Width. — The width or depth of the room is also of 
much importance and depends primarily upon the 
height of the top of the windows, Assuming that day- 
light comes only from the left side of the pupil, Ger- 
man rules require that the depth should not exceed 
two and one-half times the height of the window top 
above the plane of the desks. In Europe, class-rooms 
are generally limited to 30 feet in length, in the United 
States to 32 feet and the width varies from 20 to 28 
feet, depending somewhat upon the height. A good 
proportion between the length and the width of the 
room is from 3 to 2. The so-called long rooms, in which 
the proportion of length to width is as 4 to 3, and in 
which the desks stand parallel to the short sides of 
the room, are the most desirable from a sanitary point 
of view. Square rooms are only admissible in the case 
of a smaller number of scholars. 

32. Height. — A certain minimum height is necessary in 
the interest of good ventilation and good lighting, and 



132 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

this is fixed in Europe at about 3 J to 4 meters; in the 
United States the average height is from 13 to 13 J 
feet. 

33. Floor Space. — There are two other important con- 
siderations regarding the proper ventilation and the 
avoidance of crowding in school-rooms, namely, the 
area of the floor space and the cubic space assigned to 
each pupil. Some rules require 15 square feet of floor 
space and 200 cubic feet of air space per pupil, and 
with a room 30. feet long, 25 feet wide, and 13 feet high, 
this would limit the number of pupils to 48. For 54 
pupils a room should be 33 feet long, 25 feet wide, 
13 feet high, giving 200 cubic feet and 16J square 
feet to each pupil. The best United States schools pro- 
vide 16 square feet and 216 cubic feet for each pupil. 
In Europe, the requirements of various governments 
are that there should be from .85 to 1.50 square meters 
(9 to 16 square feet) for each pupil. 

34. Cubic Space. — Requirements, such as are usually 
made for hospitals, cannot be applied to class-rooms, 
and in consideration of the shorter space of time in 
which the pupils are confined in a class the cubic space 
is made smaller and is usually assumed at from 4 to 5 
cubic metres (141 to 177 cubic feet) for small, and 
from 6 to 7 cubic metres (211 to 247 cubic feet) for 
older pupils. 

35. Floors of Class-rooms. — A few more words should 
be said about the sanitary requirements of the floors, 
walls, and ceilings of the class-rooms. The floors should 
be free from dust and non-absorbent, and also good 
non-conductors of heat and sound. Hard wood floors 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 133 

are the best, but are necessarily expensive. As a rule, 
pine or spruce floors must be used, and should be finished 
smooth and stained or oiled. 

36. Walls of Class-rooms. — The walls of a class-room 
should be of a. light color so as to reflect light without 
causing any disagreeable glare. A light shade of blue, 
gray or green paint is the best and should be renewed 
frequently. The ceiling should be finished in a slightly 
lighter color than the walls. Plastered walls should 
be painted with oil colors at least to a height of six 
feet. 

37. Doors. — All class-rooms should have the doors hung 
so as to open outward. Transoms should be provided 
over the doors. 

38. Lighting by Windows. — Regarding the lighting of 
school-rooms by windows, the first requirement is that 
the windows should reach to nearly the ceiling and 
have nearly square tops; the second requirement is 
that the light should come principally from the left 
side of pupil. It is best to provide windows only 
on one side of a class-room, but some well-lighted school- 
rooms have been consructed which have windows on 
two sides at right angles. Windows on opposite sides 
of a room are always bad. A good rule is to provide 
at least .15 square meters (1.6 square feet or 233 square 
inches) of window surface for each pupil. Some au- 
thorities require from 300 to 350 square inches of win- 
dow-glass for each pupil. Another rule frequently 
met with is that the windows should aggregate in area 
from Ito i oi the floor space of the room; but in many 
of the older schools this proportion is only as i in 10 



134 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Windows should be wide, with large panes, and 
with glass of good quality, and they should always reach 
to within six inches of the ceiling. Arched windows 
should be avoided, because they reduce the area of 
the upper part of windows, which from the point of 
view of lighting is of the greatest importance. Some 
recommend spacing the windows close together, with 
large piers at the end of the room, while others prefer 
an even distribution, in which case the piers should be 
kept as narrow as possible. The lower half of the 
window sash should have frosted or opaque glass and 
the window-sills should be placed from 4 to 5 feet 
above the floor. Where a school-house is not set back 
from the building line, the lighting of the rooms will 
depend much upon the width of the street and the 
height of buildings on the opposite side. 

39. Direction of Light — Position of Windows. — Re- 
garding the direction, from which the light should come, 
all authorities are agreed that it should not come from 
the front or the right. Authorities are also agreed 
that it is best that it should come from the left, but as 
to light coming from the rear various writers seem to 
differ. Light from behind is not quite as bad as right- 
hand light, but in the interest of the teacher, who would 
have to face such windows, it cannot be recommended. 
Light from directly in front is very disagreeable, trying 
and injurious to the eyes, whereas the light from the 
left side seems to be free from disadvantages. Light 
directly from above is particularly suitable for draw- 
ing-rooms and for laboratories. 

This question of the proper lighting of school-rooms 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 135 

is one which it is impossible to go into at great length 
in the space of a single chapter, but it is of the greatest 
importance for the healthy maintenance of the eye- 
sight of the pupils. In Germany it has been proven, 
by numerous examinations of pupils' eyes, that near- 
sightedness is of frequent occurrence in schools, also 
that it increases in frequency and in degree in the 
higher classes. 

Wall maps, drawings, and charts should be so hung 
that they may be visible from every seat in the class. 
Children, whose eyesight is defective, should be given 
seats in the front rows of desks. Reading and writing, 
during twilight or on dark days, when the class-room 
is insufhciently lighted, should be avoided. Those les- 
sons which require much use of the eyes, should be 
given during the lightest hours of the day. 

40. Window Shades. — The windows should be provided 
with curtains or shades, which intercept and moderate 
the direct sunlight or a strong reflected light, both of 
which are injurious to the eyes. Roller shades are best 
arranged so as to roll both from the top down and from 
the bottom" up. The color of the shades should not 
be too dark, and it is found that a light buff or cream 
color is the best. 

41. Blackboards. — The blackboards should have good 
light, and must have a perfectly black dull surface 
without any gloss. 

42. School Seats and Desks. —Another subject of para- 
mount importance is the proper seating, the proper 
position of the bodies of the children, and the correct 
distance of the eye from the writing or reading book. 



136 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

With this in view, numerous types of hygienic school 
desks and seats have been advocated. At the Hygienic 
Exhibition of 1883 at Berlin, more than 70 models were 
exhibited. Seats and desks of different sizes and 
heights are provided in the classes to accommodate 
pupils of varying size. A bad posture may ultimately 
lead to permanent lateral curvature of the spine, or 
cause impairment of the eyesight. A cramped position 
will tend to injure the chest, lungs, and the abdominal 
organs. All school desks should be designed with slope 
and so built that they may be readily cleaned. There 
is no question that single desks and single seats, which 
is the prevailing system in American schools, are the 
best, and they should always be provided where economy 
in space or in cost of equipment does not forbid them. 
The seats should be placed as near as possible to the 
windows; the distance of the farthest seat should not 
be more than two or two and one-half times the height 
of the top of window above the desk level. 

43. Wardrobes. — It is necessary, for the preservation 
of order, to provide wardrobes, or coat rooms, in which 
the pupils may keep their overcoats, hats, rubber shoes, 
and umbrellas. These should always be lighted, warmed, 
well ventilated and have the walls finished in some 
non-absorbent material, suitable for cleaning and dis- 
infection. The cloak-rooms should have hooks for 
coats and hats, shelves for rubbers, and racks for 
umbrellas, with troughs for the drippings. 

It is best if a separate cloak-room is provided for 
each class, though limited floor space often prevents 
such an arrangement. The wardrobes may be arranged 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 137 

inside of the class-room, but this is a decidedly bad prac- 
tice, or else they may be placed in the corridors, or in 
large closets or cloak-rooms adjoining the class-rooms, 
which latter forms the best arrangement. It is not 
generally considered advisable to provide one congre- 
gate wardrobe for the entire school in the basement. 

44. Accident Room. — In large schools it is advisable to 
reserve a small room as an accident room, in which 
children which are suddenly taken sick may be kept 
until they recover or until they can be sent home. 

Teachers should be made familiar with the measures 
to be taken in case of accidents, injuries, or sudden 
illness. The principal should see that each school is 
provided with a surgical emergency case, containing 
the most necessary articles for rendering first aid to 
the injured. Printed directions of what to do — and 
what not to do — in case of emergency, until the sur- 
geon's or physician's arrival, should be conspicuously 
hung up in every school-house. 

Heating and Ventilation. 

45. Systems of Heating. — The method of warming a 
school-house is determined primarily by the number 
of rooms to be heated; it is likewise dependent upon 
considerations of convenience and economy. 

As is well known, we may distinguish in general 
between individual or separate, and central or general, 
systems of heating. The separate heating is accom- 
plished by means of stoves placed in each of the class- 
rooms, whereas in central heating we deal with only 
one or several fires located centrally in the cellar or 



138 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

basement. In the latter case, the system of heating 
may be either by means of warm-air furnaces, or by 
steam or hot water, and in these again the heating 
may be either by the direct or by the indirect method. 
The danger from fire increavSes in a building with the 
number of fires required for warming, hence the con- 
centration of the heating apparatus in one place is 
much to be preferred. 

46. Heating by Stoves. — The local heating of school- 
rooms is practically carried out only in the case of 
the smallest country school houses having only a few 
rooms; in such buildings the method is economical, 
because the first cost of a number of stoves is much 
less than the outlay for a central plant, but on the 
other hand there are a number of drawbacks, amongst 
which are the attendance which the many fires require, 
the bringing in of the fuel and the incidental disturbance 
of the lessons, the space required by the stoves in the 
class-rooms, the dirt, which comes with the ashes and 
soot, and the difficulty of introducing pure air. Heat- 
ing by gas stoves has been tried to a considerable 
extent in Germany, and while it is very cleanly and 
convenient, it necessarily costs from 40 to 50% more 
in fuel than heating by wood or coal. 

47. Furnace Heating. — For buildings having from 4 to 
8 rooms, furnace heating is the usual method. It is a 
method which is cheap and which can be made sanitary 
if a proper air supply and cold air box are provided, and 
if attention is given to the degree of humidity in the 
air. The furnaces must be large enough so they do 
not overheat the air, rendering it dry and unbreathable. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 139 

In the better systems, special mixing dampers are pro- 
vided, so that the air can be tempered at will from the 
class-rooms in case of mild weather, without the neces- 
sity of shutting off the fresh air supply entirely. The 
limitations of furnaces are caused by the fact that 
warm air will not readily travel horizontally for long 
distances, and that during windy and cold weather an 
unequal distribution of heat results, owing to the fact 
that some of the hot-air flues will act better than others. 

48. Steam Heating. — Where a school-house contains 
more than 8 rooms, a steam plant begins to show substan- 
tial advantages. The heating should be accomplished 
with low pressure steam and preferably by indirect radia- 
tion, which involves the placing of a sufficient number of 
heat-radiating stacks at the bottom of the warm-air 
flues. Fresh air conduits should be provided which 
supply these heating stacks and the air should be drawn 
from pure outdoor sources. Well designed, indirect 
low-pressure stearnheating systems have proven very 
satisfactory. Thermostatic control of the temperature 
of the air in the class-rooms is much to be desire i, 

49. Hot- water Heating. — Indirect hot-water heating • s 
a very excellent system, but it costs more than stean - 
heating and is not used to the same extent. The pre- 
caution should always be observed not to cause the 
class-rooms to be overheated; it is usually recom- 
mended to consider from 66 to 68 degrees Fahr. as the 
maximum allowable temperature. The corridors, stairs, 
and wardrobes should likewise be moderately heated. 

50. Heating System to be Designed by Experts. — I can- 
not do better than to quote from the able treatise by 



I40 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Mr. Edmund M. Wheelwright, of Boston, on "School 
Architecture," the following paragraph referring to 
this subject: 

"An architect should be expected to so plan a building that 
radical changes in construction are not required to admit the 
satisfactory installation of a system for heating and ventil- 
ation; but few architects have had the technical training, 
coupled with the special experience, which warrants them in 
designing such a system without consultation with an en- 
gineer whose interest in the work is not commercial. Where 
a system has been almost paralleled in a former building, con- 
structed with such expert assistance, an experienced archi- 
tect, if he has an honest and competent contractor, may ac- 
complish a fairly good result; but, even under such condi- 
tions the work would generally be brought to a nicer conclu- 
sion if an expert were employed. 

"Where a competent expert makes the plans and specifi- 
cations and supervises the construction of such a system, all 
competitors for the work are put upon an equal footing; and 
the expert's compensation will be off -set to the owner, if not 
by the first cost, certainly by the greater economy in running 
and maintaining the plant, and its greater efficiency above 
that of a system installed by the lowest commercial bidder 
who uses his own plans and specifications. Expert service is 
rendered primarily for the client's benefit and if the client is 
unwilling to pay for such service, the choice of a system based 
upon commercial competition is all that he can fairly expect 
his architect to furnish."* 

Not only should the heating apparatus for a large 
school be designed by an expert engineer, but the steam 
boilers should be managed by a trained engineer assisted 
by experienced firemen. 

* The plea, so forcefully presented in the above quotation 
by a well-known architect in favor of expert engineering ser- 
vices, is also applicable in its entirety to the sanitary and hy- 
dra,ulic installation of schools as well as of other buildings. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 141 

51. Ventilation. — The proper and ample ventilation of 
the class-rooms is one of the essential requirements of 
school sanitation. It is a sanitary problem of prime 
importance, but being so closely connected with heat- 
ing,, the ventilating system is usually designed or carried 
out by heating engineers. Ventilation is accomplished 
both by natural and by artificial methods. 

52. Air Flushing. — Whether artificial systems of ven- 
tilation are provided or not, it is always desirable that 
each room should be flushed with pure air just before 
the school commences and also during each recesss. 
During the recitations windows should be kept closed 
to exclude the street noise and to prevent dangerous 
draughts on the. pupils. All scholars should leave the 
class after the lessons and then the windows and doors 
should be opened for a few minutes and, this should be 
done not only in the summer time but in the winter 
as well. 

53. Requirements as Regards Air Supply. — During the 
school hours the air of the room should be changed sev- 
eral times per hour; here it is where the requirements 
of sanitation sometimes conflict with those of economy 
in construction and in management of the heating 
apparatus. It is suggested by sanitarians that 2000 
cubic feet of fresh pure air should be supplied to each 
pupil per hour, and in Massachusetts the requirement 
specifies 1800 cubic feet. This large volume of air 
must be taken from a pure source at an intake, located 
preferably at a point several feet above the ground, 
away from the dust of the street and not too near the 
toilet-rooms. The air should never be taken from the 



142 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

cellar. The fresh air must be suitably warmed in 
winter time and be distributed uniformly throughout 
the class-rooms in such a way that no annoying drafts 
will occur. . In the best ventilated schools the fresh air 
is suitably filtered before being warmed. 

54. Removal of Sources of Air Contamination. — All 
sources of air contamination within the class-rooms 
should be avoided or removed. This is all-important 
and without this measure the best ventilating system 
may be a failure. This requirement involves the placing 
of school wardrobes for the outer garments, as stated 
heretofore, outside of the class-rooms. I shall point 
out, in speaking of school baths, that unclean bodies 
and unwashed undergarments are among the most fruit- 
ful sources of bad air, and hence it follows that nothing 
will tend more to secure ventilation in the class-rooms, 
than to arrange a number of school baths and to give 
the children the opportunity, alternately to derive the 
benefits incident thereto. 

55. Removal of Foul Air. — In ventilation it is not suffi- 
cient to introduce pure air in ample quantities, but the 
foul air of the room must be constantly removed. This 
is accomplished in school-houses either by natural 
means, such as the difference of temperature between 
the exhaust flues and the outer air, or else by means 
of mechanical appliances, such as exhaust fans. This 
is not the place to discuss in detail the subject of the 
plenum and vacuum systems of ventilation. Ventila- 
tion by means of mechanical appliances is always ex- 
pensive, as it calls for an elaborate system which would 
doubtless secure the very best of results, but it is be- 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 143 

lieved that in most cases the satisfactory ventilation of 
class-rooms can be accomplished by means of ventila- 
ating flues artificially heated to create a constant draft. 

56. Ventilation of Toilet-rooms. — The ventilation of 
the toilet-rooms is of particular importance, and the ex- 
haust drafts for these should be sufficiently strong to 
insure that the air from the water-closets and urinal 
fixtures will at no time pass into other parts of the 
school. 

57. Air Moistening and Temperature Control. — Re- 
garding the humidity of the air in the school room, this 
should not be less than 40, nor more than 60 per cent. 
Where class-rooms are heated by a central heating 
apparatus, provision can be made for adding a certain 
percentage of moisture to the air before the same is 
conducted to the rooms, and in the case of individual 
heating appliances set up in the class-rooms, it is easy 
to provide special vessels containing water to be evap- 
orated so as to prevent the air from becoming too dry. 

Where a thermostatic system of temperature control 
is not provided for, it is necessary that every school- 
room should have a reliable thermometer. This, if 
possible, should be arranged so as to be read from 
the corridor as well as from the class-room, for in this 
way the janitor in charge of the heating apparatus may 
take observations of the temperature without disturb- 
ing the classes. 

Lighting. 

58. Daylight Illumination. — In speaking of the win- 
dows of class-rooms, I have already pointed out the means 



^ 144 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

for their natural or daylight illumination. It is very 
desirable that the plan of the school studies should 
be so arranged that the more important lessons are 
given during daylight, and those lessons which re- 
quire much use of the eyes, such as drawing and writ- 
ing, should always be given during the lightest hours 
of the day. All seats of the class-rooms should have 
ample light. The halls, the stairs, the entrances, and 
the toilet-rooms should likewise be well lighted in 
day time to secure orderly traffic and a cleanly use of 
the rooms. It is impossible, however, to get along en- 
tirely without artificial light in the schools, and this 
will be required not only in winter time, but also at 
other seasons when there are foggy or cloudy days. 
Hence all city school buildings should be piped for 
gas and wired for electric lighting. 

59. Artificial Illumination. — Amongst the chief require- 
ments, formulated by sanitarians, for artificial illu- 
mination I mention the following, which are applic- 
able to school-rooms as well as to other buildings: each 
desk or table should have ample light; there should 
not be any injurious or disturbing shadows; the light 
should not flicker; it should not be blinding to the eyes; 
it should not give off too much heat, and it should also 
vitiate the air of the apartments as little as possible. 

60. Electric Light. — The best artificial light, available 
at the present day, is the electric light, and in particular 
the indirect reflected incandescent light. One of its 
chief advantages is that it does not give off injurious 
products of combustion as is the case with gas, oil 
lamps, or candles, but even the electric incandescent 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 145 

light must be shaded by opaque or frosted globes, in 
order not to be too trying to the eyes. There is no 
question that the lighting of a school-room is better 
if accomplished by indirectly reflected light from clusters 
of lights placed out of the reach of children's eyes and 
provided with strong and suitable reflectors. The 
electric light is also much safer from the point of view 
of fire than open flames. 

61. Gas Light. — Where gas illumination is necessarily 
used, it is recommended not to use ordinary flat flame 
burners, except in halls and in' stairways. For the 
class-rooms, the round burners with chimneys and 
globes are preferable, but still better than these are 
the now well-known incandescent gas lights, such as 
the Welsh ach light and others, which give more light, 
save gas, and give off less heat. It is found advantageous 
to surround these with suitable glass globes, and of the 
latter the scientifically constructed Holophane gas globes 
deserve to be recommended above all others. 

62. Oil Lamps and Candles. — It is not necessary to con- 
sider the lighting by means of oil lamps or by candles, as 
this seems to be out of the question in a modern school- 
house. Such means of illumination can only be con- 
templated in the case of the smaller rural schools, or 
for emergency lighting, when the electric current or 
the gas supply are temporarily cut off. 

Fire Protection. 

Outbreaks of fires in schools are of frequent occurrence. 
It is, therefore, all-important that in the construction 
of the building no point should be overlooked which 



146 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

would tend to increase the safety of the structure. 
When the lives of hundreds of school children, many 
of a tender age, may be imperilled, everything should 
be done to avoid a dire calamity. 

63. Fire Protection Apparatus. — Every school should be 
equipped with some good fire fighting apparatus. There 
should be fire stand-pipes with valves and fire hose iv. 
the corridors of every floor. There should also be 
available some portable extinguishers and fire pails. 
The school should have a fire-alarm gong, and tele- 
phonic communication from the principal's office to 
the nearest fire-engine station. The children should 
be taught how to behave in case of an alarm, and fire- 
drills should be held by the teachers at frequent inter- 
vals. Above all, it is important to provide plenty of 
safe exits, doors which open outward, at least two in- 
dependent, well-lighted stairs with strong balusters, 
and with centre rails, where the width is more than 
four and one-half feet.* 

Sanitary Arrangements. 

64. Location of Toilet-rooms. — A question of much 
sanitary importance in connection with school-houses is 
the location of the toilet-rooms or "sanitaries" for the 
pupils. Shall these be located within or outside of the 
school-house? Another question is whether, in a large 
school, the toilet-rooms should be relegated to the 
basement, or whether there should be one or two on 
each of the principal floors. 

The author cannot agree with those who, doubtless 

* See Appendix A. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 147 

with the best of intentions, claim that the toilet-rooms 
for school children should never be in the basement 
of a school-house, and who argue that the sanitary con- 
veniences should be placed in a detached pavilion, con- 
nected with the main building by a covered passage-way. 

65. Objections to Outside Toilet Pavilions. — There are 
several objections to such outside toilet-pavilions, one 
of which is that they are difficult to heat in winter 
time; another is that it seems almost impossible to 
ventilate the apartments as well as the plumbing pipes 
through the roof of such one-story structures without 
causing annoyance and offense by reason of such vent 
flues and soil-pipes opening below the class-room win- 
dows. It is, of course, possible and practicable to draw 
both the vent flues and the soil-pipes over to the main 
buildings, and to extend them upwards to the highest 
part of the roof, and to thereby avoid any escape of 
noxious air into the windows of the class-rooms, but 
such a construction is usually complicated and always 
expensive. 

66. Basement Toilet-rooms. — Given a good dry base- 
ment, with proper facilities for water supply and sewer- 
age, the author cannot find any valid objection to locating 
toilet-rooms directly in the basement of a school, pro- 
vided that he can be assured of the good and positive 
ventilation of such apartments. That this can be 
accomplished in the present state of the art of ven- 
tilation, cannot be doubted for a moment. Of course, 
where toilet-rooms are so located, it is absolutely essen- 
tial that there should be safe sanitary plumbing work, 
but this also, in the present state of the art of draining 



148 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

buildings, can be attained. The author, however, would 
make one more restriction, and that is, that in base- 
ment toilet-rooms the water-closet fixtures used should 
be the single or individual closet bowls provided with 
the best of flushing arrangements. 

67. Water-closet Fixtures Suitable for Schools. — Either 
short hoppers, pedestal wash-down closets, or siphon 
closets should be used. The flush is sometimes arranged 
to work automatically, but this involves a large waste 
of water; it is better to provide individual chain-pulls. 
The so-called range closets should never be used in the 
basement of a school, and it is a grave mistake, some- 
times met with, to consider such latrines superior to 
individual closets for schools. Where dry earth closets 
are necessarily used on account of a lack of sewerage 
or water supply, these also should be located in an 
outer pavilion. 

68. Toilet-rooms for Upper Floors. — In very large 
schools it is a good plan to provide on every floor toilet- 
room conveniences, which should then be located in sep- 
arate well-ventilated wings or towers. A few school 
authorities, indeed, claim that this makes the most desir- 
able arrangement. It would doubtless be advantageous in 
saving much time of pupils which is otherwise unneces- 
sarily wasted. Ease of access and complete isolation 
are the two principal requirements regarding loca- 
tion. 

69. Teachers' Toilets. — In all school-houses there 
should be on each floor at least one toilet-room for the 
teachers' use, though there appears to be some wisdom 
in the plan of arranging for a separate teachers' closet in 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 149 

sach of the basement toilet-rooms, in order to have 
these apartments under constant control of the teachers. 

70. Number of Water-closets Required for Pupils. — As 
to the number of seats required, it is usual to provide 
in a school one water-closet for 2 5 boys and one seat for 
every 15 girls. The water-closet apparatus should be 
durable and strong in construction; it should be simple 
and positive in action for it is often liable to be unin- 
telligently used or even abused. For the use of the 
smaller children, it is quite common now to provide 
closets with lower bowls and seats. 

71. Floors, Walls and Partitions of Toilet-rooms. — The 
floors of toilet-rooms, should always be made water- 
proof and provided with one or more floor drains, so 
as to enable the janitor to wash the entire apartment 
by means of a hose. Small, unglazed, hard white tiles 
make an excellent toilet-room floor. The walls should 
be either tiled, or of enamel brick, or of common brick, 
enamel painted. The partitions should not be of wood, 
but of either soap-stone, slate, or opaque glass. It is 
usual to provide doors to each compartment on the side 
for girls, but on the boys' side they may be omitted. 
If doors are used in connection with water-closets, they 
should never be run to the floor. They should be cut 
off at least eight inches above the floor and the doors 
should be light screen doors hung with spring or reverse 
hinges. 

72. Water-closet Ranges. — If an outside water-closet 
pavilion is arranged, the water-closets may be enameled 
iron or porcelain combination ranges with automatic 
flush. Such fixtures are somewhat cheaper than indi- 



I50 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

vidual water-closets. Some of them are good, while a 
great many are bad, and all are very wasteful of water. 
To limit the flushing of such ranges to the operation of 
the janitor, whose many duties may often compel him 
to neglect this, would be an unwise proceeding. All 
trough closets with continuous bowl and intermittent 
flush cause some pollution of the air of the apartment; 
those trough closets, which have separate bowls attached 
to a common bottom conduit, are therefore preferable. 

All school closets should be inspected at least once 
a week by the principal of the school. 

73. Dry Closets. — If dry closets are used in outside 
buildings, owing to the impossibility of providing sewer- 
age facilities, the arrangement for drying the excreta and 
the ventilation of the closets should never be connected 
in any way with that of the class-rooms. 

74. Outside Closets for Country Schools. — In country 
schools, all outside privies or dry closets should be fre- 
quently disinfected; compared with water-closet is, even 
the best of them appear at times offensive. Outhouses 
for country schools should never be closer than fifty 
feet to the main school building. They should be made 
inconspicuous, but preferably connected with the school 
by a protected walk. Good lighting is as essential for 
these as it is for the water-closet rooms. 

75. Boys' Urinals. — Among the most important fix- 
tures in the sanitary equipment of school-houses are the 
boys' urinals. It is a most difficult matter to maintain 
these in a good sanitary condition. In determining 
the number of stalls, it is usual to allow one stall 
for 1 5 boys. The construction and arrangement of the 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 151 

stalls require careful consideration and attention to 
details. The width of the stalls should be from 18" to 
20", and the depth of the partitions from the front to 
the wall should be from 15'' to 18". Partitions for 
the stalls should be provided for, but should never 
reach down to the floor; the height should be from 4 
to 5 feet. 

76. Material for Urinals. — Regarding the material used 
for urinals, it may be said that all materials which cor- 
rode, disintegrate, or which are absorbent, are abso- 
lutely unfit and out of the question, hence the wooden 
partitions so often found in the urinals of school-houses, 
and the slatted wooden platforms to stand on, are to 
be entirely condemned. It should likewise be pointed 
out that many kinds of marble and cement in any form 
are absorbent and therefore unfit, and that metals, with 
the single exception of white-enameled iron, are also out 
of place. The only materials which wear well and 
which are fit from a sanitary point of view are slate, 
Alberene stone, hammered glass, and solid glazed porce- 
lain ware. 

77. Types of School Urinals. — Of the three types of 
urinals, namely, the individual bowl urinals, the trough 
urinals., and the floor gutter urinals, only the latter kind 
can be recommended for use in school-houses. The trough 
urinal is inferior because it requires in addition to the 
trough a trapped floor gutter, which must be flushed, 
hence it seems wise to dispense entirely with the trough. 

The backs, the ends, and the partitions may be made 
of either hammered glass, rendered opaque, or of slate 
or Alberene stone ; the floor gutter and the platform are 



152 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

made of slate or Alberene stone. Where pieces of slate 
are bolted to the wall, this should be done with brass 
bolts to avoid corrosion. The entire back wall of the 
urinal should be thoroughly flushed by means of a per- 
forated brass pipe supplied from the intermittent flush- 
ing tank. 

In the author's judgment, the best urin&,ls for use 
in schools are the solid white porcelain niche urinals, 
supplied with abundant flush from solid earthenware 
flushing-tanks. These are somewhat expensive, and 
next best in order are gutter urinals of slate or of Al- 
berene stone. 

In all cases it is important that the floor in front of 
the urinals should have a good slope towards the fix- 
tures. In addition to this, it is to be recommended to 
have for the urinals special local ventilation to an aspir- 
ating shaft; it may be arranged either from the house 
side of the trap or else through hollow spaces at . the 
rear of the back wall. It is also essential that such fix- 
tures should be cleaned daily by the janitor to avoid 
unpleasant smells. 

78. Care of Toilet-rooms — All toilet-rooms and their 
fixtures should be well taken care of and should be con- 
stantly controlled and watched by the janitor. The 
use of disinfectants should not be encouraged. Where 
a good type of flushing water-closet is used, and where 
a good water-carriage system of sewerage exists, dis- 
infection is not ordinarily required. As a rule, any 
deodorant which may be applied, simply substitutes 
one odor for another. It is very much better to maintain 
perfect cleanliness and perfect ventilation, and that this is 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 153 

as feasible in a school building as in a hotel toilet-room 
cannot at this date be doubted. 

79. Drinking Fountains. — School children should have, 
during recess, an opportunity of drinking water; this 
should be provided in ample quantity and of good 
quality. In city schools, the supply is best taken from 
the public or street supply. Where such is not avail- 
able, as in the case of country schools, a driven or 
tubular well should be provided, in preference to a dug 
or shallow well. 

The water yielded by the well should be subjected 
to a periodical biological and chemical analysis. Where 
any doubt exists as to the character or wholesomeness 
of the water it would be well to provide a Berkefeld, 
or other equally good, filter, though in cases where con- 
tagious illness exists it is preferable to boil and subse- 
quently cool the drinking water. 

Water-buckets with two or more drinking-cups for dip- 
ping into the bucket are an abomination ; not much better 
are sinks for drinking water with common cups, for they 
often constitute the means of transmitting disease, 
such as tonsillitis or diphtheria. Where running water 
is available, the modern hygienic drinking fountains 
with flowing jets are much to be preferred. 

80. Lavatories.— In every school there should be pro- 
vided some wash-basins, or wash-sinks, adjoining, but 
not in, the toilet-rooms ; by the use of these the children 
are encouraged in habits of cleanliness and decency. 

81. School Baths.-^The movement of providing in the 
schools free baths for children originated in the schools 
of Germany not long ago. The advantages urged be- 



154 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

came at once so apparent that the movement spread 
rapidly to other European countries, and shortly 
afterwards to the United States. At the present day 
school baths . form in many of our large cities a most 
important addition to the sanitary school equipment.* 

82. Forms of Baths. — In England, school baths are gen- 
erally provided in the form of swimming-tanks or pools; 
these are intended for physical exercise and for health 
improvement. Such swimming baths are expensive to 
construct and to maintain and they invariably require, 
as a sanitary condition sine qua non, that there should 
be preliminary cleansing baths in the form of showers, 
otherwise the children would be exposed to the now 
recognized danger of the transmission of disease. The 
common bath-tubs are equally objectionable in a school. 
The only form which has any merits as regards schools, 
is the modern rain-bath. This is cheaper in first cost 
as well as in maintenance than all other forms of baths; 
it is also the form of bath best adapted for schools 
because it requires less room to fit up and does not 
use a large quantity of water. 

83. Advantages of Rain-baths. — Such school rain-baths 
educate the children in bodily cleanliness and, inci- 
dentally, they invigorate the bodily system. The re- 
sults, wherever school baths have been installed, have 
been universally satisfactory, and their good influence 
usually extends beyond the sphere of the school. In 
the large cities many children formerly came to school 
in a condition which made them unfit to associate with 

* See W. P. Gerhard, " Modem Baths and Bath Houses." 1907. 
John Wiley & Sons, Publishers. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 155 

other children, and this for the reason that at home 
they had no opportunity for a bath. One very impor- 
tant advantage derived from school baths is this, that 
a much better ventilation is secured in the class-rooms 
because of the doing away with the once so prevalent 
smell of uncleanliness of body and clothing, the so- 
called "school smell." 

In the public schools all children should be encouraged 
to take these baths, except where they are specially 
exempted by request of their parents or their physicians. 
In Germany the taking of the baths is voluntary, yet 
from 75-90% of the pupils bathe regularly, and the 
baths are quite popular, even with the girls. The teacher 
should have the right to require the taking of a bath 
in special cases. It is found by experience that the 
bath interferes but very little with the course of studies. 
Each child should take a bath at an average of once a 
week, but in summer time more frequent bathing is 
desirable. Doubtless the larger boys prefer a swimming 
pool to the douche bath, but the former is a too ex- 
pensive form of bath and certainly not the right form 
of bath to provide in a school. There appears also to 
be no reason why all boys, who love physical exercise, 
should not supplement the use of the rain-bath in the 
school in summer time with frequent outdoor bathing in 
the river or in the ocean. 

84. Details of Construction of School Rain-baths. — Re- 
garding the details of the construction and fitting up 
of school baths, it should be said that the simpler the 
apparatus the better, but in all cases it should be con- 
structed of unusually strong and well- wearing materials. 



156 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

The bath compartment may be arranged singly, and 
this is required for the older girls; in other cases the 
room is arranged for the congregate bathing of a number 
of children. Where enclosures are used, partitions of 
Alberene stone, of slate, marble, or white opaque glass 
should be fitted up. 

The best form of douche head is the one which stands 
inclined under an angle so that the bather will not 
wet his head, except he places the same purposely 
under the douche. 

The baths are usually located in the basement, near 
the playrooms. The whole subject of school baths has 
been discussed by the author at greater length • in a 
paper entitled "A Plea for Rain-baths in the Public 
Schools," presented at a meeting of the American Social 
Science Association, and published in the Journal of 
Social Science for 1900. 

85. Sewerage. — The quick removal of sewage from a 
school building is of the greatest importance. In city 
schools, located on a sewered street, there is, as a rule, no 
difficulty in providing efficient sewerage, for, unlike the 
modern tall buildings, a school-house does not usually 
reach with its cellar floor below the level of the sewer 
in the street, hence the general rules on house drainage 
can be at once applied to school plumbing and drain- 
age, and it does not seem necessary, in this chapter, 
to go over the "grounds thoroughly covered by other 
publications of the writer.* 

From a point ten feet outside of the foundation walls, 
the school sewer may be of glazed vitrified sewer-pipe, ^ 

=* See the author's works on Plumbing, House Drainage, etc. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 157 

but from this point towards the inside and within the 
cellar, the house sewer if located below the floor should 
consist of heavy cast-iron with caulked hub joints or 
with packed flanged joints, and when located above 
the floor of galvanized screw-jointed iron pipe. 

86. Sewage Disposal. — For country schools, the dispo- 
sition of the sewage often presents difficult problems. 
Two rules may be laid down at the outset, namely, first, 
common privy vaults should be entirely prohibited, 
and second, cesspools should be avoided as much as 
possible. If they must be used, because no other sys- 
tem seems practically available for the disposal of the 
liquid wastes, water-tight cesspools, built in two com- 
partments, and located in the farthest corner of the 
school lot, should be adopted. 

For smaller country school buildings it seems advisable 
to restrict the inside plumbing work to- wash-basins and 
sinks, and to provide outside detached pavilions contain- 
ing dry-earth closets. These should be closely watched 
in order to maintain them in a sanitary condition. 

Wherever plenty of grounds are available about a 
school-house, the necessity of adopting the cesspool 
system does not exist and better systems of sewage dis- 
posal are available, which are discussed by the author 
in some of his other works.* It may suffice to mention 
that in many cases it is possible to dispose of the sewage 

* See W. P. Gerhard, "The Disposal of Household Wastes;" 
Van Nostrand Co.'s "Science Series" No. 97; W. P. Gerhard, 
"Sanitary Engineering of Buildings;" W. P. Gerhard, "The 
Sanitation, Water-supply, and Sewage Disposal of Country 
Houses." D. Van Nostrand Co., 1907. 



158 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

by means of a local purification system, such as a dis- 
posal by sub-surface irrigation. A surface disposal may 
often be successfully installed, but this should never be 
done at a distance closer than 300 feet from a building. 
In other cases, finally, the sewage may be purified by 
means of bacterial action, either in septic tanks or in 
contact filter-beds, or preferably in a combination of 
both systems. By means of these systems, the sewage 
will be so purified that the outflow from the filter-beds 
may be discharged into a ravine or into some available 
water course, without annoyance to sight or smell, or 
without any appreciable contamination of the stream. 

Maintenance of Cleanliness. 

87. Care of Class-rooms. — The care of a school build- 
ing is a matter of considerable moment. Class-rooms, 
corridors, and toilet-rooms must be kept at all times 
scrupulously clean. When it is considered that the 
cleaning is generally entrusted to the school janitor, 
it becomes apparent that the selection of the individual 
for the post of custodian of the building should be made 
with great care. 

88. School Janitors. — Many so-called "janitors" are 
merely political appointees and lack the proper quali- 
fications for their position, and the best planned and 
equipped schools will suffer through their incompe- 
tency. The work of the school janitor should always 
be under the control of the school principal, and the 
Board of Education should exercise a vigorous super- 
vision of all school janitors. It is also important that 
a school janitor should not be so burdened with other 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 159 

duties that he would fail to find sufficient time to at- 
tend to the cleaning of the school-house. School 
Boards should recognize that, in a large school-house, 
the work of looking after the heating apparatus, the 
school baths, the toilet-rooms, the ventilating apparatus, 
the cleaning of the class-rooms, requires the time of 
several individuals. Therefore sufficient help should 
always be allowed to the janitor. 

89. Daily Cleaning. — We may distinguish between the 
necessary daily cleaning and the periodical cleaning. 
The entrances, staircases, corridors, and cloak-rooms 
receive a great amount of outside dirt, brought in by 
the pupils, and therefore they should be scrubbed and 
swept daily. The school-rooms likewise should receive 
a daily cleaning at the close of the school day. All 
windows in class-rooms should be opened for the airing 
of the rooms and the floors should be swept. This 
should never be done when the floors are dry, but they 
must be sprinkled with wet sawdust, or similar damp 
material, or they should be swept with a wet broom, 
or with moist rags or mops. It is recommended to 
use for dampening a disinfecting solution, such as for- 
malin. The school furniture, the desks, and seats 
should also be rubbed daily with a damp dust cloth. 
Regarding the proper way of dusting and sweeping, a 
recent occurrence in the New York School Board is of 
more than passing interest. 

School principal B. had tried for many months to force his 
janitors to adopt hygienic methods of school cleaning. He de- 
manded that they use wet sawdust in sweeping, and that they 
dust with damp cloths. The janitors preferred the feather 



i6o SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

duster, Mr, B. claimed rightly that the feather dusters were 
useful in stirring up germs from desks and seats, but was or- 
dered by the Committee on Care of Buildings, to procure feather 
dusters for the janitors. He refused to do this. Called before 
the school Committee, Mr. B. argued that germs of measles, 
diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc., are much more liable to be re- 
moved by sweeping with wet sawdust and by dusting with 
rags made damp by immersion in a proper disinfecting solu- 
tion. The story goes on to say that the Committee was deeply 
impressed by his suggestions, but they concluded that the 
method suggested would require the doubling of the number 
of cleaners. They gave no reasons for such a conclusion. 

A great deal of dust is stirred up by the gymnastic 
exercise of the pupils, and therefore the gymnasuim 
should also receive a daily cleaning. Finally, the toilet- 
rooms should be looked after and, where they are made 
of impervious and smooth materials, the walls and the 
floors should be washed each day with a hose. With 
well-ventilated and well-fiushed fixtures the frequent 
use of disinfectants in connection with plumbing should 
be discouraged as being unnecessary. It is much more 
important to strive for the maintenance of absolute 
cleanliness. As a rule, the deodorants commonly used 
only substitute one odor for another. 

90. Periodical Cleaning. — The dust which accumulates 
in a school-house, and particularly in class-rooms, may 
be the means of propagating contagious diseases. For 
this reason a periodical cleaning at frequent intervals 
should be carried out in addition to the daily cleaning. 
Quite recently mechanical means for cleaning have been 
introduced in apartments and hotels, and in Boston the 
experiment is being made of installing a vacuum sweep- 
ing system in one of the public schools. Such a method, 



SCHOOL SANITATION. i6i 

although costly, is doubtless efficient. At least once a 
week it is desirable to wash and clean the walls, as 
well as the window sills and the picture mouldings, if 
such are provided; the blackboards also should re- 
ceive attention and the windows should be washed and 
made perfectly clean and bright. Once a month or 
oftener the cleaning of windows should be done, in order 
to admit as much light to the class-rooms as possible. 

91. Disinfection. — During vacation time a much more 
thorough cleaning of the entire building should be ar- 
ranged for; this should comprise both the cleaning and 
washing of walls and floors with hot water and soap 
and a disinfection of the premises. This disinfection 
should include the class-rooms and the warm air flues 
of the heating apparatus, also the cold air receiving- 
chamber and the air-filtering room. 

The books and the pencils used in the class-rooms 
should be disinfected at least four times a year by 
means of formaline disinfection, and the floors and 
baseboards, desks, and seats should be washed not only 
with hot water and soap, but also with a disinfecting 
solution. 

92. Dust and Rubbish. — In order to prevent as much 
as possible the wholesale accumulation of dust and rub- 
bish, it is important that the overcoats and rubber shoes 
of pupils should be hung up in wardrobes outside of the 
class-rooms. Near the entrances provision should always 
be made, by shoe scrapers, for the cleaning of the shoes. 
Metallic door-mats should also be provided. Teachers 
should strictly enforce the rule that no spitting on the 
floor should be permitted. 



i62 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Sanitary Inspections and Tests of Plumbing. 

93. Sanitary Inspections. — It is of the greatest import- 
tance in a school-house that the plumbing, even when it 
is confined to the toilet-rooms, should be absolutely tight 
and that there should be at no time an escape of sewer 
air. To insure this it is necessary that the building 
should be tested and inspected periodically, and I might 
add that such tests and inspections should always be 
made by disinterested professional men. The form of 
inspection and the test to be applied would not essen- 
tially vary from those used in the sanitary inspection of 
other classes of buildings. It is usual, nowadays, to 
test the plumbing with a smoke machine. A sanitary 
examination should always include, besides the plumb- 
ing and drainage, a report on the general cleanliness 
maintained in class-rooms, cloak-rooms, basement, and 
school yards. 

Some General Sanitary Conditions. 

94. Medical Inspections. — At all times it is necessary 
to observe precautions against the spread of commu- 
nicable diseases amongst school children, A constant 
medical inspection of the school and of the pupils should 
be instituted, but these should in no wise interfere 
with or render unnecessary the sanitary inspections pre- 
viously recommended. 

Periodical tests of the vision of school children should 
be made by the medical officers, and from time to time 
the printed text-books furnished to the scholars should 
be examined with a view of the effect of the type upon 
the vision. While school teachers should take an inter- 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 163 

est in all these matters they should above all watch 
the sanitary condition of the building. The promiscu- 
ous use of books and pencils is fraught with danger; 
books and pencils distributed in a class should always 
go to the the same children, as both may be the means 
of infection from one child to another. 

In the large school-houses there should be a special 
room set apart as a lunch room, for pupils who remain 
in case of bad weather if they live too far from the 
school. During the airing and ventilating of the class- 
rooms the pupils may also use such a room. Lunch- 
rooms are particularly desirable where the noon recess 
is so short that pupils cannot go home. It is to be 
recommended that the lunch-room be provided with sim- 
ple gas stoves, for the warming of the children's lunches. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE AND 

HYGIENE.* 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BOOKS. 

"Essay on the Construction of Schoolhouses." W. Alcott. 
Boston, 1832. 

"An Exposition on Heating and Ventilating the Schoolhouses 
in Boston in 1846." W. Bryant and H. Leopold. Bos- 
ton, 1848. 

"The Uses and Abuses of Air." J. Griscom. New York, 1850. 

"School Architecture." H. Barnard, New York, 1854. 

"Country Schoolhouses, and a Treatise on Schoolhouse Archi- 
tecture." Jas. Johonnot. New York, 1859. 

"Mental Hygiene." I. Ray. Boston, 1863. 

"The Gymnasium and Its Fittings." E. Ravenstein and J. 
Hulley. London, 1867. 

* The bibliography is arranged according to year of publica- 
tion. 



1 54 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

*' Manual on Schoolhouses and Cottages, for the People of the 
South." C. Chase. Washington, 1868. 

"Schoolhouse Architecture." S. Eveleth. New York, 1870. 

**The Ventilation of Schoolhouses." A. C. Martin, Boston, 
1871. 

•'Sanitary Principles of School Construction." E. Chadwick. 
London, 187 1. 

"Schoolhouses. With Architects' Designs." J. Johonnot. New 
York, 1871 or 1872. 

'Illustrative Descriptive Manual of School Material." J. 
Schermerhorn. New York, 1874. 

"School Hygiene." R. J. O'Sullivan. New York, 1874. 

"Hygiene of the Eye." Dr. F. D. Castle. Social Science Asso- 
ciation Papers. Phila., 1875. 

"School Life and Its Influence on Sight." G. Rueling. Balti- 
more, 1875. 

■'The Schoolhouse: Its Architecture, External and Internal 
Arrangements." J. C. Hodgins. Toronto, 1876. 

"Public Hygiene in America." H. I. Bowditch and H. G. 
Pickering. Boston, 1877. 

"School Architecture: Planning, Designing, Building." E. 
Robbins. London, 1877. 

"School Architecture." E. R. Robson. London, 1877. 

"School Life: Its Influence on Sight and Figure." R. Lieb- 
reich. London, 1878. 

"On Heating and Ventilation. With Special Reference to the 
Schools of Nashville." N. T. Lupton. 1878. 

"Sanitary Condition of Schoolhouses." W. R. Nichols. Bos- 
ton, 1880. 

''School and Industrial Hygiene." D. F. Lincoln. Phila- 
delphia. 1880. 

"Weak Eyes in the Public Schools of Philadelphia." S. Ris- 
ley. 1 88 1. 

"Effects of Student Life upon Eyesight." Calhoun. Wash- 
ington, 1 88 1. 

"Hints and Remedies for the Treatment of Common Accidents 
and Diseases." T. W. Turner. New York, 1882. 

"Warming and Ventilating Occupied Buildings." General 
Arthur Morin. Translated from the French. Washington, 
1882. 

"A Treatise on Ventilation." L. W. Leeds. New York, 1882. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 165 

"Steam Heating." R. C. Briggs. New York, 1883. 

"Healthy Schools." C. E. Paget. London, 1884. 

"Six Lectures upon School Hygiene." F. Wells and others. 
Boston, 1885. 

"Eyesight in Schools." R. B. Carter. London, 1885. 

"Hygiene of the Eye." Hermann Cohn. London, 1886. 

"Sanitary Conditions and Necessities of Schoolhouses." D. F. 
Lincoln. Concord, N. H., 1886. 

"Hints and Suggestions on School Architecture and Hygiene." 
J. G. Hodgins. Toronto, 1886. 

"School Hygiene." A. Newsholme. London, 1887. 

"The Ventilation and Warming of School Buildings." G.B. 
Morrison. New York, 1887. 

"The Principles and Practice of School Hygiene." A. Carpenter. 
London, 1887. 

"School Furniture." G. A. Robrick. Boston, 1887. 

"Technical Schools and College Buildings." E. C, Robins. 
London, 1887. 

"Designs for Schoolhouses." Department of Public Instruc- 
tion. State of New York. A. S. Draper. 1888. 

"Town and Country School Buildings." E. C. Gardner. New 
York, 1888. 

"Public Institutions." F. Colyer. London, 1889. 

"The German Gymnasium in its Working Order." G. M. Wahl. 
Springfield, 1889. 

"Hygiene of Childhood." F. H. Rankin. New York, 1890. 

"School Hygiene." Including simple directions respecting 
ventilation, eyesight, infectious diseases, and first aid 
to the injured. J. W. Abel. London, 1890. 

"Sanitary Conditions for Schoolhouses." A. P. Marble. Wash- 
ington, 1 89 1. 

"Hygienic Requirements of School Furniture." G. A. Rob- 
rick. New York, 1892. 

"The Hygiene of the Ear." V. Cozzolino. Trans, by J. Ers- 
kine. London, 1892. 

"School Hygiene and Schoolhouses." Young. Augusta, 
1892. 

"Outlines of School Hygiene." W. H. Burnham. Worcester, 
1892. 

"Ventilation and Heating." Chap. XVIII, School Hygiene. 
Dr. John S. Billings. New York, 1893. 



i66 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

" Schoolhouses and Public Buildings." R. Wade. Boston, 

1893. 
"Notes on Warming and Ventilation of Houses, Churches, 

Schools, and Other Buildings." E. H. Jacob. London, 

1895. 
"The Eye in its Relation to Health." C. Prentice. Bristol, 

1895. 
"School Hygiene and Diseases Incidental to School Life." R. 

Farquharson. London, i'895. 
"Report of the Director of Physical Training." E. M. Hart- 
well. Boston, 1895. 
"School and Industrial Hygiene." D. F. Lincoln. Philadelphia, 

1896. 
"Schoolhouse Buildings." E. M. Wheelwright. Vol. I, of 

Municipal Architecture. Boston, 1898. 
"Modern American School Buildings." W. R. Briggs. New 

York, 1899. 
"School Hygiene." L. Kotelmann. Syracuse, 1899. 
"School Sanitation and Decoration." S. Burrage. New York, 

1900. 
"School Hygiene." E. R. Shaw. New York, 1901. 
"School Architecture. Handy Manual for Architects and 

School Authorities." W. G. Bruce. Milwaukee, Wis., 

1903. 
"Lighting of Schools." S. H. Rowe. London and New York, 

1904. 
"Schoolhouse Architecture." A. J. Bicknell. New York. 
"The Hygiene of the School-room." W. F. Barry. 1904. 
"The Schoolhouse, its Heating and Ventilation." Jos. A. 

Moore. Boston, 1905. 
"Modern School Buildings." Felix Clay, London, B. T. 

Batsford Co. 2d Edition. 1906. 
"The Planning and Fitting-up of Chemical and Physical 

Laboratories: With Notes on the Ventilation, Warming, 

and* Lighting of Schools." T. H. Russell. B. T. Bats- 
ford Co. London, 1906. 

REPORTS. 

"Report on School Architecture and Plans for Graded Schools." 
Commissioner of Education. Washington, 1870. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 167 

"The Principles Involved in the Heating and Ventilation of 
Existing Common Schoolhouses." C. N. Hewett. 5th 
Annual Report, Minnesota State Board of Health. 1877. 

"Hygiene of Public Schools in Massachusetts." D. F. Lincoln. 
Papers from 42d Annual Report, Board of Education 1878. 
Boston. 

"Rural School Architecture." Circular No. 4, 1880, Bureau 
of Education. Washington. 

"Schoolhouse Sanitation." E. W. Bowditch. Dept. of Health, 
Boston, 1 88 1. 

"The Hygienic Construction of the Bridgeport High School." 
W. R. Briggs. 3d Annual Report, Connecticut State 
Board of Health. Bridgeport, 1881. 

"Sanitary Tract No. i of the Citizen's Sanitary Society of 
Brooklyn." "Sanitary Defects of Schools." 1881. 

"School Buildings and the Hygiene of Public Schools." State 
Board of Health of New York. Albany, 1881. 

"The Relations of Schools to Diphtheria and to Similar Dis- 
eases." H. B. Baker. Reprint from Sixth Vol. Trans- 
actions of Am. Pub. Health Association. Boston, 1881. 

"The Hartford Public High School." A General Description 
of the Warming and Ventilation. G. Keller. Hartford, 
Conn., 1882. 

"Circular on Plans and Specifications of Schoolhouses for the 
Country Districts, Villages, and Smaller Cities of Wiscon- 
' sin." W. C. Whitford. Madison, 1882. 

"Suburban Schoolhouses." W. R. Briggs. Reprint from 
State Board of Health, Connecticut. Concord, N. H., 1882. 

"Sanitary School Circular of the New Jersey State Board of 
Health. Trenton, 1882. 

"Health in the Common Schools." Sanitary Requirements of 
Schoolhouses. Reprinted from the 2d Annual Report 
of the State Board of Health of New York. Albany, 
1882. 

" How to Build Schoolhouses. With Systems of Heating, Light- 
ing and Ventilation." G. P. Randall. Chicago, 1882. 

" Report of Special Committee on the Sanitary Condition of the 
Schoolhouses of the City of Lynn." 1883. 

"Questions Intended to Ascertain the Present Condition of 
School Hygiene in the Cities of the U. S." Bureau of 
Education. Washington, 1884. 



1 68 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"School and Health Circular No. 3." State Board of Health 

of New Jersey for Parents, Guardians, Children, Teachers, 

and Trustees. 1884. 
"Circular No. 2" of Same. Reprint. 1885. 
"Study Out of School Hours." L. W. Parish. Iowa State 

Teachers' Assoc, 1885. 
"Lighting and Seating Schoolhouses. Defects and Remedies." 

L. F. Andrews. Iowa State Board of Health. 1885. 
"Report of the Citizens' Association on Heating and Ventila- 
tion of the Public School Buildings of Chicago," 1885. 
"Ventilation and Warming in their Relation to School Hygiene." 

F. W. Draper. Mass. Emergency and Hygiene Association. 

1885. 
"Over Pressure in Schools." W. S. Robertson. Muscatine, 

Iowa. Reprint from State Board of Health Report. 1885. 
"The Sanitary Conditions and Necessities of Schoolhouses and 

School Life." D. F. Lincoln. Concord, N. H. Am. Pub. 

Health Assoc. 1886. 
"Fourth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Health, of 

the City of Providence." 1887. 
"Seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of 

Maine." 1891. 
"Report of the Worcester Schools." 1891. Worcester, 

Mass. 
** Report of Committee on Sanitation of the School Committee 

of the City of Lynn." for the year 1890. Lynn, Mass., 1891. 
"Sanitary Conditions for Schoolhouses." A. P. Marble. 1891. 

Bureau of Education, Washington. 
"School Document No. 9, Report on Seating of School Children." 

Boston, 1892. 
"Annual Report of the Architect's Department for the Year 

1894." Boston. 
"The Drainage and Sanitary Arrangements of Elementary 

Schools." W. Spinks. Manchester, 1895. 
"Fifteenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Schools of 

the City of Boston, 1895. 
"Ventilation of School Buildings Practically Considered." 

R. Wade. Mass. Teachers' Association. Boston, 1895. 
"Methods of Heating, Ventilation and Sanitation Used in the 

PubHc Schools of the U. S." State Board of Education, 

Montana, 1896. 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 169 

" Report of the Expert Committee on the Sanitation of School- 
houses." City of Boston, 1896. 

"School Buildings and Ventilation." Connecticut School Docu- 
ment No. 12. 1896. 

"Forty-eighth Missouri Report of Public Schools." 1897. 

"Schoolhouse Warming and Ventilation." Conn. School Docu- 
ment No. 13, 1898. 

"Notes on School Hygiene." The Sanitary Inspector, 1900. 

"Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Penn- 
sylvania." 1900. 

"School Architecture and Hygiene." G. B. Morrison. Mono- 
graphs on Education in the United States. State of New 
York, 1900. 

"Plans of Schoolhouses." Connecticut School Document No. 7, 
1900. 

"Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds." W. L. Hall. 
Washington, 1901. U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Farmers Bulletin No. 134. 

"Schoolhouse Sanitation." S. H. Durgin. Bulletin No. 2, 
Vol. III. Vermont State Board of Health. 1902. 

"School Architecture." D. F. Lincoln. Board of Education. 
Boston. 

"Report of the Special Committee on the Sanitary Condition 
of the School Buildings." Paterson, N. J. 

"Schoolroom Ventilation." P. J. Higgins. Popular Science 
Monthly. 

"School Hygiene." Annual Report of State Board of Health 
of New York. D. F. Lincoln. 

"On Building Schoolhouses." Circular No. 55, State Board of 
Health of Maine. 

'"Sanitary Schoolhouses." Circular No. 3, State Board of Health, 
Vermont. 



ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES AND PAPERS. ENGLISH. 

"Notes on Schoolhouse Designs." F. E. Kidder. Builder and 
Woodworker. 1886. 

"The Sanitation of Minneapolis School Buildings." North- 
western Architect and Improvemeyit Record. 1886. 

"The Sanitary Condition of St. Paul School Buildings." Same. 



I70 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"Heating and Lighting of a Model School Building." I. C. 

Snyder. Architecture and Building. 1895. 
"German Maxims on School Sanitation." Wm. Paul Gerhard. 

Architecture and Building. 1897. 
"Children's Eyesight; and School Desks." Health Magazine. 

1898. Dr. Hiram Woods. 
"Special School Issue." Architecture and Building. 1890. 

ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES AND PAPERS. GERMAN. 

"Liiftung und Heizung von Schulen." Deutsche Bauzeitung. 

1886. J. Keidel. Ingenieur. 
"Giftige Luft in Schule und Haus." Dr. Mensinga. Flens- 

burg, 1878. 
"Ueber Schulheizung." H. Rietschel. Berlin, 1880. 
"Priifung und Verbesserung der SchuUuft." Dr. A. Wolpert. 

Kaiserslautern, 1883. 
"Der Schularzt.'* Dr. L. Burgerstein. Zeitschrift filr das 

Realschulwesen, 1887. 
"Das Schulzimmer. Vierteljahrsschrift ueber die Fortschritte 

in der Ausstattung und Einrichtung von Schulraumen." 

Charlottenburg-Berlin. P. Johannes MilUer. 
"DerSchulartzt." Dr. Jul. Pick. 1906. 
"Das Schulhaus." Berlin. Erscheint monatlich. 
" Zeitschrift fiir Schulgesundheits-Pfiege." Hamburg. 

GERMAN BOOKS. 

" Erf ordernisse eines zweckmassigen Schulgebaudes und der 
dazu gehorigen Raume." C, Lang. Braunschweig, 1862. 

"Die Schulhauser und die Schultische auf der Wiener Weltaus- 
stellung." Hermann Cohn. Breslau, 1873. 

"Der Schulhausbau." Hittenkofer. Deutsche Bautechmsche 
Taschenbibliothek. Serie Kommunalbau. Leipzig, 1878. 

" Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen aut dem Gebiete der Schul- 
gesundheitspflege." J. V. Liebig. Ntirnberg, 1874. 

"Handbuch der Schulhygiene." Dr. Adolph Baginsky. Ber- 
lin, 1883. (Contains Bibliography.) 

"Die Hygiene des Auges in der Schulen." Wien, 1883. Dr. 
Hermann Cohn. 

"Ueber Schul-Hygiene in England." Dr. H. Weber. Wies- 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 171 

'Die schulhygienischen Bestrebungen unserer Zeit." Dr. J. 

Ritz. Muenchen, 1884. 
'Der Bau und die Einrichtung der Schulgebaude." R. Klette. 

Karlsruhe, 1886. 
'Luftung und Heizung von Schulen." Hermann Rietschel. 

Berlin, 1886. 
'Die Schulkfankheiten, ihre wahrscheinlichen Ursachen und 

ihre Verhiitung." W. Siegert. Berlin, 1889. 
'DievGesundheitspflege in der Volksschule." Duesseldorf, 1889. 
'Die Schule der Zukunft." Dr. Hermann Cohn. Hamburg, 

1890. 
*Das Moderne Volksschulhaus." C. Hintraeger. 1891. 
'Schulgesundheitslehre.'' Eulenberg und Bach. Berlin, 1891. 
'Ueber Luftung und Heizung, insbesondere von Schulhausern 

durch Niederdruckdampf-Luftheizung." H. Beranack. 

Leipzig, 1892. . 
'Die Schulheizung : Ihre Mangel und deren Beseitigung." 

E. Haesecke. Berlin, 1893. 
'Grundriss der Schulgesundheitspflege." Dr. R. Wehmer. 

Berlin, 1895. 
'Die heutige Schulbankfrage." A. Bennstein. Berlin, 1897. 
'Schulhauser fiir Stadt und Land." ~ R. Faber. Leipzig, 1898. 
'Handbuch der Architektur." IV Theil, Band 6, Heft I u. 2. 
'Schulgesundheitspflege." Dr. Sigmund Rembold. Tuebing- 

gen, 1899. 
' Baukunde des Architecten. Neueste Aufi,, zweiter Theil, vierter 

Band. Berlin, 1900. 
'Volksschulhauser." C. Hintraeger. Fortschritte der Archi- 
tektur. Heft 8 u. 12. Berlin. 
'Hochschulen.*^' Dr. E. Schmitt. Heft 4. Fortschritte der 

Architektur. 
' Grundrissvorbilder von Gebauden aller Art." L. Klasen. III. 

Schulgebaeude. 
'Handbuch der Hygiene." Dr. Th. Weyl. Band 7. Schulhy- 

giene. Dr. Leo Biirgerstein und Dr. Aug. Netolitzky. 

Jena, 1895. Second Edition. 1902. 
Wehmer, Handbuch der Schulhygiene." Wien, 1904. 
Kotelmann, Schulgesundheitspflege." 1904. Miinchen. 
'Das Schulzimmer auf der bayerischen Jubilaums-Ausstellung." 

Nlirnberg, 1906. Contains a very complete Bibliography. 



SANITATION OF MARKETS 
AND ABATTOIRS 



V 

SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS 

In the following, I propose to discuss briefly the 
buildings devoted to the provision of healthful food 
supplies for the large cities, in particular their interior 
planning and construction, their mechanical equipment 
and the sanitary arrangements required for them. 
Prominent among such buildings are the city markets 
and the abattoirs. Both kinds of structures require the 
solution of interesting and often intricate architectural, 
engineering, sanitary and economical problems. 

1. Markets. — In general the term "market" is applied 
to public places or squares in cities and towns, where 
meetings are held or where crowds congregate for the 
purpose of buying and selling articles of food supply. 
In a restricted sense, it is used to designate the build- 
ings intended for the sale and purchase, at certain hours 
daily, of food products. The city markets, as we shall 
see later on, are usually built by the municipality. 

2. Abattoirs. — The abattoirs or public slaughter-houses 
are buildings and places intended for the slaughter of 
domestic animals, and for the dressing, packing, and 
shipping of the meat. In some cases these buildings 
are municipal buildings, particularly so in Europe, but 
in the United States they are largely built by private 
enterprise. ' 

I7S 



176 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Markets. 

3. Food Supplies. — The food supplies of a city com- 
prise : 

(a) vegetables, salads, fruit, and other products of 
the soil and plant life. 

(b) *animal food, such as meat, game, poultry, fish, 
eggs, milk, butter, and cheese. 

All food kept exposed for sale in the markets should 
be pure, fresh, and wholesome, and its sale should not 
cause or create unsanitary conditions. Some food rots 
quickly if exposed to rain or snow; other food is very 
sensitive to heat or cold. Decayed fruit, rotten veget- 
ables, spoiled or tainted meat should be at once con- 
demned and removed. The larger the city, the more 
complex, difficult, and troublesome become these prob- 
lems of food supply and food control. 

4. Development of the Market Building. — Markets for 
the sale of provisions were known to some of the nations 
of ancient history. The Greeks, for instance, made 
use of open market squares, called "agoras," which 
they often surrounded with two-story arcades. The 
Romans had oblong markets, called "forums," with 
wide porticos. The market squares were sometimes 
richly adorned with the statues of famous citizens, 
with sculptural monuments and with fountains. Later 
on markets began to be roofed over, but were kept 
freely open on the sides, as for instance in Italy. 

During the Middle Ages, public fairs were periodi- 
cally held in the open squares or market places of many 
cities, some fairs being devoted to only one class of 
goods, others offering to the buyers facilities for the 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 177 

purchase or exchange of many different kinds of mer- 
chandise or commodities. They were generally com- 
bined with church or guild festivals or kermisses, at 
which a large gathering of people, who often came 
from long distances, took place. Later on, retail stores 
were opened in cities on business streets and on main 
thoroughfares, and these somewhat relieved the crowded 
condition of the city markets. At the beginning of the 
present century market buildings became confined to 
the sale of food supplies and provisions; in deference 
to practical considerations they were gradually replaced 
by covered structures. 

In Paris, the Emperor Napoleon I. was the first to 
establish such public markets. The erection of the 
famous "Halles Centrales" was commenced under his 
reign in the year 181 1, but they were not entirely com- 
pleted until 1878. They embraced ten large buildings, 
covering a total area of 44,000 square metres or about 
II acres; their total cost was about ten million dollars, 
the annual running expenses two hundred thousand 
dollars, while the yearly revenue to the city amounted, 
a few years ago, to from i^ to 2I million dollars. 

London, Berlin, and other large capitals of Europe 
followed very soon in the erection of imposing and per- 
manent structures similar to those of Paris. At the end 
of the nineteenth century Berlin had 15 large markets, 
where all food was controlled by sanitary inspectors, 
and where all meat sold at retail was examined and 
marked. London had four large markets and Vienna 
had eight such buildings. In the United States, many. 
cities have public market buildings. As examples 



lyS SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

might be mentioned the Fulton, the Gansevoort, and 
the Washington markets in New York City; the Walla- 
bout market in Brooklyn; the Faneuil Hall market 
in Boston and others. None of these, however, can 
be compared in size or magnitude of the structural work 
with the grand structures to be found in some of the 
cities of Europe. It is related that there was a public 
market in the city of Boston as early as the year 1634, 
and a hundred years later we find the city had three 
markets. In 1834. the city of Boston built the large 
Faneuil Hall market, which cost upward of $150,000 
and contained 160 stalls to be rented. This building 
is at present in charge of one superintendent under 
whom 1 40c men work. 

5. Advantages of Public or Municipal Markets. — Mar- 
ket buildings are utilitarian and sanitary structures, in- 
tended for the convenient exposing, selling, and buy- 
ing of food. 

The chief advantages of covered markets are: The 
buyers and sellers, the market people and the public are 
protected against the inclemencies of the weather, while 
the provisions are not so liable to be damaged or entirely 
spoiled by rain, snow, heat, cold, or by the street dust, 
by dirt and smoke, and they can be better exhibited 
and exposed for inspection and for sale. The buyers 
are offered a greater choice of food supplies, they can 
obtain fresh food products daily, the buying and sell- 
ing is rendered more convenient and the prices of, pro- 
visions become better regulated, more uniform, and in 
a great many cases cheaper, owing to the reduction in 
the rent and of the running expenses. 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 179 

City markets also facilitate the thorough supervision, 
and render more efficient the inspection, of the food 
supply by the sanitary police, whose chief duty is to pre- 
vent the sale of diseased or decayed meat or other food. 

Under official supervision, the waste materials are 
promptly removed, and are therefore not so liable to 
become a nuisance to sight and smell, or" a danger to 
public health in populous localities. Covered market 
buildings also afford improved facilities for the storage 
of those food products which remain unsold at the 
close of the day. 

The soiling of streets and squares uanvoidable where 
these are used as open markets, is done away with en- 
tirely, and the street traffic and the safety of pedestrians 
are better maintained. Moreover, public market build- 
ings constitute, if properly riianaged, a source of con- 
siderable revenue to the city. 

6. Location. — The location of city market buildings 
depends to some extent upon their character. Large 
cities in Europe have not only wholesale but also retail 
markets. The former are always located conveniently 
near to the traffic and shipping facilities, to the rail- 
roads, to river or canal transportation, to the harbor 
wharves and docks, or to the main roads or highways 
leading from the surrounding country districts into the 
city. Retail markets, on the other hand, are located 
in or near the centres of the most populated city dis- 
tricts, so as to be conveniently and quickly reached 
by the public and the small trades people. In populous 
cities, therefore, a large number of well-appointed mar- 
ket buildings are desirable. 



i8o SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

In the United States, many of the market buildings 
are devoted not only to the wholesale, but also to the 
retail trade; the large buyers, such as the chefs or 
stewards of hotels, restaurants, institutions, steamship 
lines, the intermediate purchasers or jobbers for the 
grocery establishments, the provision stores, and the 
smaller private markets buy their stock of provisions 
in the early morning hours; later on, the retail pur- 
chasers come to the market, among them the house- 
keepers, boarding-house keepers, and many house-wives, 
who prefer to make personal selections at the market, 
and who are anxious to obtain their supplies in a 
thoroughly fresh condition. 

Markets for cattle, to be sold for slaughtering, are 
generally located close to, or in connection with, the 
slaughtering establishments, and are usually termed 
"stock yards." Other special markets, such as fish and 
oyster markets, are located convenient to the harbor or 
the docks ; markets for the sale of flowers are sometimes 
held in the early morning hours on the city squares, as 
for example the flower market in Union Square in New 
York City. 

7. Constructive Features of Market Buildings. — Market 
buildings should be inexpensively designed, but should 
be built in a substantial manner, and so as to be thor- 
oughly sanitary. They are constructed either of brick 
and stone, or of iron and glass; wooden structures 
should not be tolerated. Where it can be avoided, 
such buildings should not be placed in a closely built 
city block; buildings placed on open squares and 
standing entirely detached are much preferable. Pro° 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS i8i 

vision should be made so that all kinds of vehicles and 
trucks have easy access to the market. 

The chief constructional requirements are the follow- 
ing: 

(i) the halls must have ample light; 

(2) they must not be draughty, yet be well ventilated; 

(3) they must afford plenty of floor space and stor- 
age-room ; 

(4) they must have plenty of exits and passage ways, 
also driveways for the loading and unloading of wagons. 

(5) they must be well and substantially constructed. 
Ample floor space is an essential requirement, and 

hence market structures generally cover a large area 
of ground. Suitable provision must be made for a 
number of wide entrances and exits to facilitate the 
market traffic. Wholesale market buildings require 
suitable arrangements for loading and unloading the 
trucks, which carry the provisions, and the wagons of 
market gardeners from the rural suburbs; also drive- 
ways for the carts and wagons of the buyers, and rail 
connections with the available freight lines for the 
prompt receipt of provisions coming from long dis^ 
tances. All driveways require to be well paved and 
drained. 

8. Interior Features. — The interior of a market building 
is usually a one-story lofty hall structure, covered either 
by wide-span roof trusses, or having smaller roof divi- 
sions, supported by intermediate iron columns. The 
columns are not objectionable as they can be utilized 
in the division of the sales-stands. 

The whole interior is sub-divided by several longitu- 



l82 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

dinal main aisles, each being from ten to fifteen feet 
in width, with namerous passage-ways or cross aisles 
at right angles to them, the cross aisles being made 
from five to seven feet wide. 

Woodwork should be avoided in market hall interiors 
for well-known reasons. The walls should be of iron or 
steel and glass, or else of brick. Perfect cleanliness 
being an essential requirement, the walls should be fin- 
ished with a non-absorbent material to a height of at 
least six or seven feet. For this purpose, the walls may 
be faced with glazed bricks, or they may be lined 
with white tiles, or else they are simply plastered with 
hard plaster or cement, which is often painted with 
light-color enamel paint. 

The construction of the floor is of much importance. 
It may be of cement, of asphalt, or of hard-burnt paving 
brick. It may also be laid with large square slabs of 
marble, or be tiled, a rough tile being preferable because 
it does not become slippery. 

The buildings generally have cellars with cool vaults 
for the storage of such provisions as are left unsold. 
The cellars may be arched over, and the floor made 
waterproof, and finished either in asphalt or in cement, 
or with asphalt paving-blocks, or hard-burnt paving 
bricks; sometimes a marble mosaic floor is used. Hy- 
draulic or electric lifts should be provided to take the 
food supplies down to the cellar. 

9. Interior Equipment. — The interior equipment is 
generally quite simple; the spaces formed by the aisles 
and cross-aisles are sub-divided into open, or some- 
times closed or housed-in, sale stalls. These are usa- - 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 183 

ally raised one step above the floor level of the hall. 
The stalls are fitted up with tables and chairs, with 
benches and chopping blocks, with racks, shelves, and 
iron stands, fitted with numerous large hooks. The 
usual sub-division is into stands for meat and poultry, 
for vegetables, for fruit, for dairy products, such as 
eggs and butter; for fish, oysters, lobsters, and other 
sea food. The meat and fish stalls require a more care- 
ful fitting up with marble, slate, or soapstone table 
boards. Large fish markets are provided with basins 
filled with either fresh or salt water for the keeping of 
live fish and lobsters; occasionally some stalls are 
reserved for keeping live fowls for sale. 

Where there are cellars for the storage of goods, 
there should be also convenient stairs for access, in 
addition to the lifts already mentioned. 

The upper floors or the galleries are utilized for offices 
for the food inspectors and officials of the sanitary 
police, also for the superintendent in charge of the 
market building, for his assistants, and for the market 
cleaners and employees. Sometimes a dining-room or 
restaurant is provided. 

10. Refrigerating Plant. — Modern market buildings are 
almost always provided and equipped with a refriger- 
ating and cold-storage plant, and in addition to numer- 
ous large refrigerators there are included artificially 
cooled rooms for the storage of meat, poultry, eggs, 
and other products which become easily affected by 
the heat. 

Where refrigerators and cold-storage chambers for 
ice are used, the waste-pipes for the melting ice must 



i84 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

be properly and safely disconnected from the soil-pipes 
and the sewer. It must be borne in mind that meats, 
fish, and other articles of food are quickly spoiled when 
exposed to sewer emanations. 

11. Maintenance of Cleanliness, Water-supply and 
Plumbing. — The maintenance of cleanliness in market 
buildings is of paramount importance, hence particular 
attention should be paid to the sanitary equipment. Good 
sanitary conditions require the provision of a plen- 
tiful supply of water, and suitable and ample arrange- 
ments for the flushing of the floors" and the washing of 
walls. In the floors there must be plenty of well-trapped 
drainage openings, which in turn must be sewer-con- 
nected. For the washing of the floors and the flushing 
out of the floor cesspools numerous hydrants or sill-cocks 
with connections for rubber hose must be installed. 
Separate well-kept and sanitarily arranged toilet-rooms 
for both sexes are needed. 

12. Ventilation. — Market halls should be well ventil- 
ated. Ventilation is generally accomplished by means of 
high side windows, fitted so as to swing on a horizontal 
axis, or else by raised ridge roofs with louvre windows. 
Good ventilation is of paramount importance in mar- 
ket buildings, not only because of the large crowd of 
persons who visit the market daily, but also on account 
of the necessity of removing the strong odors due to 
some of the supplies, like fish, cheese, meat, etc., and 
finally because it is necessary to maintain the food 
supplies in a good condition. At the same time it is 
important that the lower part of the market hall should 
be ^ree from annoying and objectionable draughts. Pro- 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 185 

vision must be made to heat the building in winter 
time. 

13. Lighting. — Ample daylight illumination is essen- 
tial, supplemented by gas or electric light for the dark 
winter mornings. Plenty of light is also a safeguard 
against the possible sale of food which has begun to decay ; 
it is likewise necessary for the maintenance of cleanliness. 

14. Removal of Waste Food and of Offal. — Floors and 
passageways of market halls, as well as the surrounding 
streets, should be kept scrupulously clean. To accom- 
plish this, constant vigilance and care must be exercised 
by the officials in charge of the building. Decompos- 
ing vegetable or animal food should not be permitted to 
accumulate, and in order to maintain healthful condi- 
tions, a daily or more frequent removal is imperative. 
During the hot weather, frequent flushing with water 
and the occasional application of approved disinfecting 
liquids should- be practised. 

All pavements and floors should be non-absorbent 
and should be well drained to prevent the formation of 
stagnant pools of filthy water. Galvanized iron covered 
receptacles should be used for the collection and re- 
moval of waste bits of food, butcher's offal, etc. Water- 
tight covered carts should be provided for the re- 
moval of waste matters; open carts should not be 
tolerated. 

The removal of condemned food and of all waste and 
offal should be regular, prompt, and efficient; a daily 
removal is absolutely necessary. Pending transporta- 
tion, all waste should be stored in tight, well-covered, 
and well-kept galvanized iron receptacles. Strict regu- 



l86 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

lations and rules for the sanitary maintenance of mar- 
ket halls should be issued by the municipal board of 
health, and a daily inspection is required for the enforce- 
ment of the rules. In addition to the daily sweeping of 
the market halls, attention should be paid to the pass- 
ageways and to the streets adjoining a market. 

Abattoirs. 

15. Object of Abattoirs. — Let us now turn our atten- 
tion to the public abattoirs, or organized slaughter- 
houses of cities. The modern general tendency towards 
centralization, which we find in so many large and suc- 
cessful industries, has in recent years been applied to 
the places, or buildings, where animals are slaughtered. 

'The prime object of public slaughterhouses is to do away 
with the nuisance, which was in former times so com- 
mon, of doing the slaughtering in private yards or 
butcher shops, scattered throughout the various dis- 
tricts of a city. In the large cities in particular it was 
found to be almost impossible to exercise a proper 
control of the private slaughtering establishments. The 
effort toward centralization or concentration of tliis 
important industry came about principally through the 
desire, from the public health point of view, to secure 
a more careful and strict control of the live animals 
as well as of their meat. 

16. Evils of Private Slaughter-houses. — It became 
obvious, long ago, that it was uneconomical, unsanitary, 
and impracticable to slaughter live stock at the butcher 
shops or the selling places for meat. Many evils were 
connected with this pernicious practice, such as: 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 187 

(a) the annoyance and sometimes the danger arising 
to pedestrians from the cattle being driven through 
the city streets; 

(b) the lack of adequate slaughtering facilities; 

(c) the difficulty of a proper official meat inspection, 
because an unreasonably large force of inspectors was 
required ; 

(d) the danger to the health of the population arising 
from the possible sale of diseased meat; 

(e) the universal, unsanitary, and often offensive con- 
ditions of the slaughtering places, caused by the deficient 
facilities for cleanliness; 

(/) the improper disposal of the animal waste mat- 
ters, which resulted in nuisances, bad odors, and in soil, 
air, and water pollution; 

(g) the annoyance to the public, incident to the re- 
moval of the offal and waste through the streets; 

(h) the nuisances arising from the keeping of ani- 
mals before killing, as well as the noise incident to the 
killing process; 

(i) the bad effects of exposing the slaughtering pro- 
cesses to the eyes of children; 

(/) the lack of regulation in the methods employed 
and the failure to adopt improved methods of killing 
the cattle; 

(k) and finally the increased cost of the meat supply 
to the consumers. 

All the objections cited are removed and overcome 
by the only proper remedy, which consists in the con- 
centration of the business of killing animals, intended 
for food, and the erection of central abattoirs or public 



i88 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

slaughter-houses, removed from the crowded city dis- 
tricts to the city Hmits, and simultaneously with this 
the abolition of all small private slaughtering places, 
located in the heart of the city. 

In order to render public abattoirs successful it is 
absolutely necessary that the municipality should have 
the legal right to prohibit private slaughtering, to estab- 
lish laws making the slaughtering at the public abattoirs 
obligatory, and to make rules and regulations insuring 
the killing of cattle and hogs and the preparation of 
animal food products under conditions favorable to the 
public health. 

17. Advantages of Central Abattoirs. — Numerous ad- 
vantages arise to a city from the establishment of cen- 
tral public abattoirs, and chief amongst these are the 
following : 

(i) They do away with all the injurious features, pre- 
viously mentioned, connected with private slaughter- 
houses, when these are scattered among the populous 
city districts. The public health is considerably im- 
proved by the abolishment of the ill-kept private slaugh- 
tering establishments, which are generally reeking with 
filth, and hence become offensive to the entire neighbor- 
hood. The public health is protected, because the 
slaughtering business is carried on in the public abat- 
toirs on sanitary principles, and because cleanliness is 
maintained, and good order and business system pre- 
vail. 

(2) Offensive odors and disagreeable noises connected 
with the slaughtering business are either removed en- 
tirely, or reduced to a minimum. Unsanitary condi- 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 189 

tions, resulting in the pollution of the soil, the aii, and 
of surface- and underground-waters are removed. 

(3) The street traffic is benefited, because the driv- 
ing of cattle through the city streets is eithei done 
away with entirely or considerably reduced. This in 
turn facilitates the maintenance of the streets in a 
clean condition. 

(4) The sanitary inspection of the animals before 
slaughtering and of the meat after killing is greatly 
facilitated and performed in a more organized and 
careful manner. The sale of unwholesome or diseased 
meat is more efficiently prevented. 

(5) The butchers are offered better facilities for the 
killing of the animals and for the dressing of the meat; 
the killing is done in a humane way and under the con- 
stant superintendence of qualified inspectors. Owing to 
increased facilities for the storage and keeping of 
meat, the latter does not so readily spoil. Moreover, 
better facilities exist for the maintenance of cleanliness. 

(6) Central abattoirs also facilitate the disposal, 
prompt removal, or commercial utilization, of the 
numerous waste products of slaughtering. The hides, 
blood, the fat, the bones, the entrails, and the offal are 
taken care of in properly-arranged establishments, 
which form adjuncts to the slaughter-houses. 

(7) In case of cattle epidemics, there is a better con- 
trol of the animals to be butchered. 

(8) In large abattoirs slaughtering is done more 
economically, hence the prices of meat are better regu- 
lated and kept lower. The entire business is accom- 
plished in a more orderly and systematical manner, a 



I90 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

steadier supply of meat is furnished and a scarcity in 
the meat supply cannot so easily occur. 

1 8. Private and Municipal Abattoirs. — Large public 
abattoirs may be built and erected, first: by the muni- 
cipality; second: by butchers' associations or corpora- 
tions; third :by private individuals or firms. 

In Europe, municipal abattoirs are the rule, and we 
find there only a few instances of abattoirs erected by 
private individuals. In the United States the majority 
of abattoirs are built by butchers' associations (for ex- 
ample those of New York City and those at Brighton, 
near Boston), while others are established through the 
enterprise of private firms. 

It seems, generally, preferable to have public abat- 
toirs built and controlled by the municipality, for the 
slaughtering of animals for food and the inspection of 
the meat involve sanitary problems which should be 
under the control of the sanitary police. In some in- 
stances, the meat inspection and control is performed 
by the State Board of Health, and in some very large 
abattoirs, from which meat is exported to foreign coun- 
tries, as in Chicago, there is a Government inspection. 

There is no doubt but that large central public abat- 
toirs, erected by the city, offer the best solution of the 
problem of the sanitary control of the meat supply. 
Cleanliness and sanitation can be enforced efficiently 
only where these buildings are owned by the city. When 
this is the case, the city rents the slaughter-stands or 
compartments to the butchers, and in this way the 
abattoirs become a source of considerable municipal 
revenue. 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 191 

19. Development of the Abattoir. — It is interesting tc 
review briefly the historical development of the public 
abattoir. Ancient Rome had such public slaughter- 
houses and a guild of butchers existed during the reign 
of the Emperors, whose members were privileged tc 
kill animals intended for meat supply. The slaughter- 
ing was done in special buildings. With this single 
exception there did not exist in any country previous 
to the beginning of the nineteenth century any or-, 
ganized system for the slaughter of cattle. The butchers 
usually slaughtered the animals on their own premises, 
hence the official meat inspection was very difficult and 
often proved quite insufficient. The annoying odors 
from the scattered slaughter-houses constituted an enor- 
mous sanitary evil. 

The public abattoirs may be said to have originated 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century in France. 
The Emperor Napoleon I., to whose active interest, as I 
have already mentioned, we owe the establishment of 
the first public market buildings in Paris, gave the 
matter considerable attention. Recognizing the many 
sanitary, commercial and economical advantages due 
to centralized public abattoirs, he authorized and or- 
dered their construction in the suburbs of Paris in the 
year 1807. He issued at the same time a decree, forbid- 
ding entirely all private slaughtering in the small shops. 
Three years later, in 18 10, he caused laws to be passed 
applying to the entire country. In 181 5 five public 
slaughter-houses were opened, covering 38 acres of 
ground, which were considered models of construction 
and internal equipment. 



192 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Since then, many large cities of other European coun- 
tries, and even smaller towns, have followed the ex- 
ample of Paris and erected public abattoirs. Even the 
use of the French word "abattoir" has gone over into 
the English and German languages. In Prussia, a law 
was passed in 1868 prohibiting the slaughtering of cattle 
anywhere except at the public abattoirs. In order to 
show the rapid increase in the number of such public 
buildings, it may be mentioned that in 1870 Germany 
had about 80 abattoirs, in 1896 over 600, and in 1902, 
836 public abattoirs, of which 71 had also large stock 
yards connected with them. In no other country 
has so much been accomplished in the matter of 
municipal abattoirs in recent years as in Germany, and 
some of the large German establishments, which the 
author has recently visited and inspected, are models of 
construction and equipment, and have in some instances 
been followed elsewhere. In my judgment, American 
cities could profit greatly by studying the best ex- 
amples existing in the older civilized countries. In 
the United States many private abattoirs and packing 
houses of great size exist, particularly in the large West- 
ern cities, which are also the centres of the cattle mar- 
ket, such as Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, 
and Louisville. The largest central live stock depot 
and the largest abattoir in the United States is at the 
Union Stock Yards at Chicago. 

In New York City, slaughtering-houses prior to the 
year 1866 were scattered over all parts of the city, to 
the great detriment of the health of its inhabitants, 
but in more recent years several central abattoirs have 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 193 

been erected by private enterprise, and the most re- 
cent example will be again referred to further on as a 
model of construction. In Boston, large abattoirs were 
built at Brighton under the supervision of the State 
Board of Health. Some of the public abattoirs of 
American cities are immense establishments, fitted up 
with the most elaborate and latest improved machinery 
for the rapid performance of the work and for the 
humane killing of a very large number of animals; they 
also have well-arranged auxiliary buildings intended 
for the sanitary and commercial disposal of the offal 
incident to slaughtering. 

20. Unsanitary Conditions of Abattoirs. — Not all of the 
existing abattoirs, however, are models of construction 
from a sanitary point of view, in fact in many of these 
buildings unsanitary conditions exist, forming a menace 
to the public health. Not a few of the structures are 
of wood and dilapidated, the ground beneath the build- 
ings is soaked with blood and putrefying filth, accu- 
mulated during many years. Many buildings lack proper 
sewerage facilities, the floors are soaked, slimy, and 
slippery and are not properly washed or flushed, the 
walls are spattered with blood, grease, and hair, or 
covered with mould. 

Even the processes of slaughtering and dressing the 
animals are carried on in an uncleanly and unsanitary 
manner; the workrooms are poorly lighted and unven- 
tilated, the windows obscured with dirt, inside rooms 
without light or air are crowded with workmen and 
working girls, who are compelled to breathe the air, 
rendered unhealthy by exhalations from rotten wood and 



194 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

decaying meat scraps or putrefying grease. The work- 
tables, benches, the meat racks, and the receptacles 
are inadequately cleaned. No attention is paid to the 
provision of proper and decent toilet-rooms and lava- 
tories for both sexes; the inadequate provisions made 
are sometimes found located in corners of the very 
workrooms. There is a general lack of consideration for 
the health and the comfort of the employees. Condi- 
tions, such as I have briefly mentioned, would even 
appear to be the rule rather than the exception in some 
establishments. 

Reference was made to some of these deficiencies and 
faults in an article by Dr. Stiles on "The Country 
Slaughter-house as a Factor in the Spread of Disease," 
published in the Year Book of the Department of 
Agriculture for 1896. More recently, public attention 
has been drawn to this indescribable state of affairs, 
not only by the descriptions contained in Upton Sin- 
clair's work "The Jungle," but also by the report of 
the investigation, made at the request of the President 
of the United States, by Dr. Chas. P. Neill, Commissioner 
of Labor, and by James P. Reynolds, Esq., Sociologist. 
It is perhaps to be regretted that the Commission, en- 
trusted with the work of investigation, did not include 
a sanitary expert, but it is reasonably certain that if 
laymen could find and enumerate so many defects 
as are mentioned in the report referred to, still graver 
sanitary defects would probably have been discovered 
by a more thorough technical investigation. 

The immediate effect of the publication of the report 
mentioned has been that numerous improvements in 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 195 

the sanitary arrangement and equipment of many 
abattoirs were carried out, also that stringent rules and 
regulations were passed by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for the proper meat inspection and 
for the sanitation of the buildings.* 

It should be mentioned that the large abattoirs of 
Western cities have always attached to them immense 
packing houses, in which the preparation of meat food 
products, sausages, canned meats, etc., takes place. 
It is quite obvious that an official sanitary inspection 
of such incidental trades, which form a very important 
modern industry, is quite as much "required as that of 
buildings where only slaughtering is done. The consid- 
erations given in the following pages, however, refer 
only to the latter class of buildings. 

21. Site for Abattoirs. — The site for a public abattoir 
should be chosen in the outskirts of a city; it should 
be isolated, yet easily accessible from all sides. There 
are a few good examples of abattoirs located within 
built-up city districts, but as a rule an outside loca- 
tion is preferable, as it does away with the noises and 
smells inevitable where many animals are kept together 
in readiness to be slaughtered. In no case should 
abattoirs be placed in close proximity to the residen- 
tial districts. 

In selecting a site, the three important questions of 
water supply, drainage, and of convenient traffic con- 
nections must be duly considered. Where the town is 
located on a river, it is preferable to put the abattoir 

* See Appendix D. 



196 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

below the town. The site should offer facilities for the 
transportation of the cattle, good connections by rail, by 
water, and by the country highways in localities where 
the adjoining rural districts are devoted to cattle raising. 

A large area of suitable ground is required, because 
a public abattoir is really a conglomeration of many 
buildings. Sufficient acreage should be acquired or 
set aside to permit future extension and growth. In 
nearly all cases the markets for cattle to be sold for 
slaughtering, sometimes designated as "stock yards," 
are placed adjacent to and in immediate connection 
with large abattoirs. By thus combining the live-stock 
market with the slaughter-house the sanitary inspection 
of the meat supply of the city is rendered more con- 
centrated and proportionately more efficient and simple. 

The site for cattle yards should be elevated and dry. 
A liberal area of space is required for the cattle-pens, 
the sheds, and other adjuncts. The sheds are usually 
grouped around paved yards, and the drainage of the 
roadways between the sheds and of the yards, also of 
the sheds themselves, requires the closest attention. 
There should be convenient connections with the rail- 
roads and wide platforms for the unloading of the ani- 
mals from the freight cars. In connection with large 
stock yards there should always be a well-appointed 
disinfecting station for the cattle cars. 

22. Buildings Composing an Abattoir. — Large public 
abattoirs are composed of a number of buildings. First 
of all there must be large sheds, pens, and stables for 
the animals which arrive ; these buildings are sometimes 
sub-divided into separate sheds for cattle, calves, sheep, 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 197 

and for pigs. They, however, present no special features 
worth mentioning. Next we have the buildings where 
the animals are killed, and in large establishments there 
are usually separate slaughter-houses for each of the 
groups of animals named. There must also be special 
buildings for the dressing of the carcasses, for the clean- 
ing of the meat, and the entrails, also buildings for the 
cold storage of dressed meat, and other special buildings 
must be provided for diseased or suspected animals. 

Then again, we have buildings devoted to the com- 
mercial utilization of the offal, such as fat rendering 
and bone boiling, and cremators or destructors for the 
condemned meat. An administration building should 
be provided, containing the general offices, the rooms 
for the sanitary inspectors, for the veterinary surgeons 
•and laboratories for the microscopical examination of the 
pork. There is usually provided a separate boiler and 
engine-house, containing the power plant, viz., the 
pumps for water supply, the dynamos for lighting, and 
a complete refrigerating and ice-making plant. In rare 
cases a regular wholesale meat market forms a part of 
the abattoir. In European cities, the bureau for the 
official inspection and control of the meat supply is 
considered of the highest importance and a good deal 
of space is devoted to the same. 

All the buildings named must be equipped with the 
latest and best labor-saving devices, with all modern 
sanitary conveniences, and with impervious and properly- 
drained floors, while a liberal water supply and other 
equipment facilitate the maintenance of cleanliness. 

The value of the by-products of the slaughtering pro- 



198 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

cesses is nowadays recognized to be quite high; usually 
a considerable economy in the management of an abat- 
toir may be effected by a proper utilization of the same. 
The buildings in which the by-products, such as blood, 
hides, tallow, bones, intestines, and hair, are treated, 
should be situated conveniently near and form adjuncts 
of the slaughter-houses proper. It is necessary that 
all these buildings be kept under proper sanitary super- 
vision. The noxious vapors and gases, arising from 
the cans and kettles of rendering establishments, must 
be made to pass through condensing-tanks and then 
under the fires of the boilers, and be finally discharged 
through the tall chimney stack of the boiler-house. 

23. Planning of Abattoirs. — The correct grouping and 
location of the several buildings is important and depends 
somewhat upon the size and shape of the lot; it is also 
dependent upon the provisions available for good ship- 
ping connections. No general rules for the planning of 
abattoirs can be given, as each special case forms a 
problem in itself. In general, three types may be dis- 
tinguished. 

In the first of these, the buildings are all concentrated, 
roofed over, and interconnected by covered passages. 
This type requires a smaller floor area and causes a 
reduction in the cost of construction; its compactness 
favors easy management and superintendence, but the 
drawbacks are that the building as a whole can only 
be enlarged with difficulty, and that there is often an 
insufficient supply of light and air. In the second type 
the different buildings are separated by open courts, 
streets or alleys, and each building may be readily en- 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 199 

larged if necessary, and light and air are provided in 
abundance. In the third type, which may be called a 
combination of the other two, the buildings are sepa- 
rated from each other, but interconnected by covered 
passages and courts, and this is probably in many cases 
the best system. 

The majority of abattoirs are buildings of only one 
story, the killing house being located on the ground 
level, while the by-products of slaughtering are stored 
in the cellar. There are, however, a few modern ex- 
amples of buildings of many stories, and in these it is 
customary to take the cattle to be slaughtered to the 
highest floors, and then to locate the different processes 
and operations of dressing the carcasses, of cleaning the 
hides and of treating the offal on the lower floors. An 
example of this type of abattoir may be found in the 
new model slaughter-house, built in New York City 
for the Butchers' Association, and located on nth 
Avenue and 39th Street, a description of which is given 
in Appendix C. 

24. The Main Slaughtering Hall. — Among the buildings 
forming a public abattoir, the one in which the slaughter- 
ing or killing of the animals and the dressing and chop- 
ping of the carcasses are done, is of prime importance. 
The arrangement of the structural features of the killing 
house or hall require therefore special mention. 

We may distinguish two different types. In the first 
type, which is the one most universally met with in 
German abattoirs, there is one large open and undivided 
slaughtering hall, in which all the different butchers 
work together, whereas in the second type there are 



200 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

provided two rows of smaller killing compartments, 
arranged one on each side of the central aisle, each 
compartment being rented out to one or to several butch- 
ers. This type of killing hall is the usual one in France, 
in Belgium, and in Italy. The first described type is, 
however, very much preferable from a sanitary point 
of view, because it facilitates the official supervision of 
the slaughter trade, and necessarily, to some extent, 
involves a mutual inspection by the butchers of their 
work. The first type is also cheaper in construction, 
for it does away with the many dividing walls of the 
compartments. For the different kinds of animals there 
are usually provided separate and distinct slaughter- 
ing halls, hogs in particular are nearly always killed in 
special buildings. 

25. Features of Construction. — Regarding construction, 
it may be stated that the outer walls of slaughter-houses 
may be built of either brick or stone, or else of iron 
with glass sides and roofs. Wooden buildings should 
never be put up. 

In the construction of the interior, it should be borne 
in mind that there is a great deal of constant wear 
and tear in such buildings, and hence that the first 
requirement is the durability and strength of the build- 
ing materials employed. Woodwork should be used 
as little as possible. On account of the slaughtering 
processes carried on in the buildings, it is quite essen- 
tial that the inside walls to a height of six or seven 
feet from the floor should be rendered impervious, 
smooth, and easily washable, so that dried blood and 
scraps of flesh adhering to them can be readily removed 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 20I 

by means of warm water and soap. The walls may be 
faced with light-colored glazed brick, or else they may 
be tiled with white glazed tiles. In cheaper construc- 
tions, the brick walls are coated with asphalt varnish, 
and any wooden posts or partitions should be treated 
in a similar manner. Whatever the wall surface be, 
it should be smooth and such as to be easily washed and 
cleaned. 

26. Floors. — ^The floors of a slaughter-house should be 
solid, non-absorbent, and impervious to moisture of any 
kind; moreover, they should be hard and durable, but 
they should not crack, nor should they be too smooth 
or slippery, as this would interfere with the operations 
of the butchers. It is somewhat difficult to reconcile 
these conflicting requirements. Asphalted and con- 
creted floors have been much recommended, but on 
trial they have in some buildings proved to be only 
partly successful. Asphalt floors are apt to become 
soft in summer time; the cement floors, on the other 
hand, may crack or they become chipped or broken by 
the axes of the butchers and require constant repairs. 
In some cases roughened bluestone slabs have been used 
with success; another good pavement is formed of two 
layers of hard-burned brick, laid on edge in cement or 
in concrete, but this is necessarily expensive. Many 
butchers maintain their preference for a wooden floor, 
probably on account of its non-slipperiness, and notwith- 
standing its lack of durability and the fact that it absorbs 
organic impurities. Heavy planks of Georgia pine calked 
thoroughly water-tight at the joints in the manner of a 
ship's deck are satisfactory, but since the planks become 



202 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

rapidly splintered by the blows of the axe used in slaugh- 
tering and in dividing up the killed aninials, it becomes 
necessary to put down a second layer of planks, in other 
words, a double flooring, and to keep the same always 
in thorough repair. 

The floor should always be well graded and sloped to 
floor drains; sometimes special floor troughs or gutters 
are provided, and arranged so as to catch the blood 
and to carry the same to special receptacles. The upper 
parts of the walls and the ceiling should be plastered or 
whitewashed at frequent intervals. The roof may be 
pitched and covered with slate, or made flat and finished 
with metal or tar and gravel. 

Sanitary Features. 

27. Water Supply. — In centralized slaughter-houses 
enormous quantities of water are used during the day, 
hence one of the chief requirements is an abundant and 
very liberal supply of both hot and cold water. In 
Europe, where water is ordinarily not used as liberally 
or wastefully as in the United States, the supply re- 
quired is estimated at seventy-five gallons per each ani- 
mal per day. While this figure includes the allowance 
for the watering and washing of the cattle, and for the 
washing of floors and the sprinkling of the roadways, 
it does not include the volume of water required for the 
condensers of the refrigerating plant. This latter is 
estimated separately at 150 gallons for each head of 
cattle slaughtered. 

The water supply may be obtained from the mains of 
the city water- works, or else it may come from a separate 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 203 

local plant. Where the abattoir is located at some dis- 
tance beyond the city limits, it often becomes necessary 
to provide a separate water-supply system, requiring one 
or several wells, a set of steam pumps, and one or several 
high-service water-tanks or else pressure-tanks. 

A complete system of water mains should be installed 
covering all buildings of the abattoir, so that water 
may be drawn at any place where it may be required 
for washing, flushing, or other use. Provision should 
likewise be made for a good supply for fire protection 
purposes, including the setting of plenty of fire hydrants. 
As the buildings are not very high, and as most of the 
water is drawn at taps located on the ground-floor level, 
the water-tank for abattoir use need not be raised very 
high, but to obtain sufficient pressure at the hydrants 
for fire extinguishing purposes, it is best to arrange for 
a separate elevated water-tank for fire purposes, or else 
to use a large pressure-tank located in or near the power- 
house. 

Sometimes the water distribution is so arranged that 
the city supply, where available, is used for fire pur- 
poses, while the local supply covers all other water re- 
quirements. 

In the buildings, the main-supply pipes should be 
ample in size and should be carried either at the cellar 
ceiling, or else high up on the first floor, where the pipes 
are not so liable to be damaged. Numerous inside taps 
are required, not only at the troughs and other plumb- 
ing fixtures, but also for hose use. 

Hot water is likewise required in large quantities, 
particularly at the places where the cleaning of the in- 



204 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

testines is done; also for the baths and lavatories for 
the employees; It is best. to arrange this, by provid- 
ing in the power-house a large hot-water tank,or a feed- 
water heater heated by exhaust and by high-pressure 
steam. 

28. Drainage. — For all abattoirs good drainage is very 
essential. In the main slaughtering hall, numerous 
vitreous ware or solid porcelain ware troughs should be 
provided for the use of the butchers, each of these having 
a trapped waste-pipe and connection with the main 
sewer of the building. The floors of the hall should have 
trapped floor drains at suitable points, and sometimes 
open gutters are provided, besides special troughs for 
the removal of the blood from the slaughtered animals. 

The general rules on sewerage and plumbing, which 
have been formulated for other classes of buildings, are 
also applicable to slaughter-houses, hence it seems super- 
fluous to go into their details. 

Where the abattoir is composed of many buildings, 
a general sewer plan should be laid out. In many cases 
it will, be found advantageous to provide two sewer sys- 
tems, namely one for storm-water from the paved yards 
and roadways and for the roof drainage, and a second 
separate system for the waste water from the buildings,- 
including the toilet and bath-rooms. 

The main sewers are usually pipe sewers, constructed 
of vitrified or glazed sewer-pipes, or where they are 
larger and egg-shaped, built in concrete. The sewer- 
pipes within the buildings should be of heavy iron pipe, 
and care should be exercised to give them a sufficient 
fall, to prevent deposits and stoppages. All catch- 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 205 

basins, troughs, and sinks should have efficient strainers, 
and flushing arrangements should be provided. 

Manholes should be placed at junctions and at changes 
in grade and alignment. The bottoms of the manholes 
should be built on a level with the flow line of the sewer 
and there should be no depressions or sumps in the 
bottom, which would collect and retain deposits of or- 
ganic putrefying matters. All sewers should be ven- 
tilated in the most practical and efficient manner. 

29. Purification of the Waste-water. — Although the 
waste-water from abattoirs is not nearly as highly pol- 
luted as that from some manufacturing establishments, 
yet it is necessary that it should be purified before 
being discharged into a water course. In Europe, one 
finds at many abattoirs local purification plants for the 
sewage. In all such instances it is, of course, advis- 
able to exclude the roof and yard drainage from the 
** sanitary " sewers. 

The means used for purification are either mechanical, 
chemical, or biological, and sometimes a combination 
of two methods is employed. Very often, the plants 
comprise large settling-chambers or regular septic tanks, 
in connection with one or more tanks for chemical pre- 
cipitation. Coke and gravel filters are also much used. 
The favorite method seems to be at present the chemi- 
cal precipitation, but more recently biological sewage 
disposal methods have also been installed. 

30. Lighting. — Good daylight illumination may be 
attained by providing the building with plenty of large 
windows; this is essential both for the maintenance of 
cleanliness and for the careful inspection of the meat. 



2o6 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Artificial illumination is secured by means of either 
gas or electric light. If the gas mains of the gas works 
extend to a point near the abattoir, gas lighting may 
be used; a separate gas lighting plant is not recom- 
mended except possibly an acetylene lighting plant. 
Steam being available in the power-house, it is easy to 
arrange for an individual electric light plant. 

31. Toilet- and Bath-rooms. — There should always be 
provided the necessary number of well-kept and well- 
ventilated toilet-rooms, arranged entirely separate for 
both sexes. Modern abattoirs are also frequently provided 
with shower- or rain-baths, for the use of the butchers' 
help. These should be placed in the vicinity of the 
large killing hall. The details of the plumbing fixtures 
suitable for use in abattoirs do not differ from those in 
universal use in other manufacturing establishments. 

32. Heating and Ventilation. — Artificial warming in 
not usually required for the large killing rooms, but the 
offices, toilet-, and bath-rooms, the microscopical labor- 
atories, and the restaurants should be suitably warmed 
in winter. Low-pressure steam-heating is therefore usu- 
ally installed. High-pressure steam is required for dis- 
infecting purposes. 

The pens and stables for the cattle, the large killing 
hall, or the several killing compartments, and the places 
where the meat food products are prepared, require 
abundant ventilation. 

33. Maintenance of Cleanliness. — A good water supply 
and proper drainage facilities will be a great help towards 
maintaining the entire establishment in a decent and 
cleanly condition. In addition, there should be the 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 207 

very best arrangements for the prompt removal of all 
waste accumulations which attract both rats and flies; 
both pests must be kept out of a slaughter-house at all 
hazards. All offal, animal manure, fat, etc., should be 
removed quickly and regularly. 

The maintenance of absolute cleanliness in every part 
of the buildings is of the greatest importance. Nui- 
sances arise, not only from the accumulation of filth 
on or about the premises, but likewise from imperfect 
or improper modes of disposing of the slaughter-house 
refuse. A prompt disposal of the manure from the 
cattle yards, the pens, and stables, is indispensable and 
should be carried out with regularity. All streets and 
alleys throughout the abattoir should be swept daily 
and washed frequently. The places or buildings in 
which diseased animals are kept, require special disin- 
fection. 

Not only the buildings, but also their equipment must 
be constantly kept in a sanitary condition, in order 
that all work of slaughtering and preparing the meat 
or the meat-food products be performed in a cleanly 
and sanitary manner. Ceilings, walls, and columns 
should be frequently washed, scraped, and whitewashed 
or painted. All floors should be kept washed and 
flushed. The trucks, trays, hoists, tables, racks, plat- 
forms, and receptacles of all kinds must be kept scrupu- 
lously neat. Knives, saws, utensils, and butchers* tools 
or implements of all kinds should be cleansed daily and 
frequently sterilized. The same precautions are re- 
quired as regards the working clothing, such as aprons, 
etc., of the employees. These must be required to wash 



2o8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

their hands before handhng any meat, and to disinfect 
them when diseased carcasses are handled. The manager 
or the superintendent should see that these rules are 
enforced. The meat inspectors should be required to 
follow the same regulations as the employees. 

34. Mechanical Equipment. — The mechanical equip- 
ment of slaughter-houses comprises a great variety of 
machinery, such as movable and stationary hoisting 
cranes, lifts, tackles, and hooks, by means of which the 
killed animals are suspended and moved about in order 
to dress them and cut them up; trucks and iron tanks 
placed on wheels are required for the removal of the hides 
and the offal; barrels and pails are provided for the 
blood; there must also be weighing scales, tables, and 
chopping-blocks. For the watering and flushing of the 
floors, by means of the inside hydrants, a large amount 
of rubber hose is required. 

One of the most important parts of the mechanical 
equipment is the refrigerating or cold-storage plant, 
and a modern large abattoir can hardly be successfully 
operated without such. In fact, the success of large 
abattoirs began only with the introduction of the modern 
system of mechanical refrigeration, which enables the 
carcasses of animals to be chilled soon after killing, 
and which thus helps to keep the meat in a condition 
suitable for storage and transportation. It should also 
be mentioned that the development of the industry of 
shipping fresh-dressed beef was largely due to the intro- 
duction of the refrigerator cars on railroads. 

35. Sanitary Inspection Service. — The sanitary inspec- 
tion service of abattoirs comprises three principal divi- 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 209 

sions, namely, first, the examination of the live stock 
before slaughtering, by veterinary surgeons ; second, the 
inspection and microscopical examination of the meat of 
the slaughtered animals; and third, the sanitary inspec- 
tion of the buildings and of the sanitary conditions in 
which they are maintained. It is the duty of the veter- 
inary surgeons to watch the arriving cattle with a view of 
preventing the spread of cattle disease or the killing of 
diseased animals. All suspected cattle should be at 
once separated and removed to pens specially designed 
for diseased animals. The sanitary inspection service 
forms an important administrative question into which, 
however, it is not intended that this article should 

go- 

The proper management of central abattoirs requires 

the strict enforcement of carefully drawn up rules and 
regulations. In the Rules and Regulations, governing 
the meat inspection, issued on June 30, 1906, by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, an attempt 
was made to cover to some extent the sanitation of the 
slaughtering-premises (see Appendix D). Considering 
the importance and the extent of the slaughtering in- 
dustry of this country, ^ the rules are not sufficiently 
elaborate or detailed. They show in some parts a lack 
of technical knowledge, but merit approval as being 
the first step in the right direction. 

Note. — During a recent four months' trip in Europe, 
the author made visits of inspection to, and studied 
the plans and equipments of the municipal abattoirs 
in the following cities, viz.: Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, 
Leipzig, Dresden, Freiburg, Frankfort-on-Main and 



2IO SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Antwerp. He was especially impressed with the ex- 
cellent layout and the minute cleanliness maintained at 
the Frankfort-on-Main abattoir. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON "MARKETS" AND "ABATTOIRS." 

Hennicke, Mittheilungen ueber Markthallen in Deutschland, 
England, Frankreich, Belgien, und Italien. 

Farmers' Bulletin 184, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Marketing 
Live Stock, by Prof. Chas. S. Plumb. 

Schwarz, Maschinenkunde fiir den Schlachthofbetrieb, 190 1. 

Oscar Schwarz, Bau, Einrichtung und Betrieb offentlicher 
Schlacht- und Viehhofe. 3d Edition. 1903. (There is 
also an English translation of this standard work, pub- 
lished in London about 1904.) 

Dr. Lorenz, Winke fiir Schlachthof-bauende Staedte. 1905. 

Baukunde des Architekten. Part II. Gebaeudekunde. Vol. I, 
Landwirthschaftliche Gebasude — Markthallen — Schlacht- 
hofe. 

Handbuch der Architektur. Part IV., Vol. Ill, Gebaeude fiir 
Lebensmittel-Versorgung. 

G. Osthoff, Markthallen und Schlachthaeuser. 
Dr. Theo. Weyl, Handbuch der Hygiene. Vol. VI, Part B. 
F. W. Wilder, The Modern Packinghouse. — A complete Treatise 
on the Designing, Construction, Equipment, and Opera- 
tion of a Modern Abattoir and Packing-house, according 
to present American Practice, including Formulas for 
the Manufacture of Lard and Sausages, the Curing of 
Meat, and Methods of Converting By-products into Com- 
mercial Articles. Chicago, 1905. Nickerson and Collins, 
Publishers. 
A large book of 555 pages, ostensibly devoted to the subject 
given in the title page. The title of the book is somewhat mis- 
leading, for there is very little in this book about construction, 
equipment, and sanitation of modern abattoirs. It is rather 
a handbook on the subject of the packinghouse business. It 
gives in a convenient and simple form practical suggestions, 



SANITATION OF MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS. 211 

tables and formulas which are needed in the operation of such 
plants. It describes in detail each operation in all the vari- 
ous ramifications of the business, from the unloading of the 
animals at the pens to the production of the finished meat food 
products. Valuable information is also given on the planning 
and arrangement of the various departments of the modern 
packing-house, but very little indeed is said about proper con- 
struction and the much-needed sanitation. Since the litera- 
ture on this subject is very scant, one would suppose that in 
a book of this kind much stress would have been paid on the 
proper sanitation, the drainage, the sewerage, the disposal of 
the offal, the water supply, etc. If the author had this point 
in view at all, he entirely forgot to mention or to discuss the 
same. (W. P. G.) 

Hearings before the Committe on Agriculture of the House of 
Representatives, United States, on "Conditions in the 
Chicago Stock Yards. 59th Congress, First Session, Wash- 
ington, Government Printing Office, 1906. 
This report contains the full report of Mr. James Bronson 
Reynolds and of Commissioner Charles Neill on Conditions in 
Chicago Stock Yards, together with other reports on Inspec- 
tions, also the Hearings before the Committee. 

Regulations governing the Meat Inspection of the United 
States Department of Agriculture. Issued under authority 
conferred on the Secretary of Agriculture by the Act of 
Congress approved June 30, 1906. Washington, Govern- 
ment Printing Office, 1906. 

*Our Slaughter-House System — A Plea for Reform, and The 
German Abattoir." C. Cash and Hugo Heiss. London, 
1907. 



APPENDICES 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX A 

Fire Protection and Fire Prevention in Hospitals. 

In General. — Hospitals should be provided with effi- 
cient fire protection and fire extinguishing-apparatus 
and appliances. Water for fire apparatus must be pro- 
vided in ample volume and under a good fire pressure. 
The water pressure may be obtained: 

(i) From a water reservoir, located at an elevation 
of at least loo feet above the highest part of the build- 
ings; 

(2) from a stand-pipe or from an elevated water-tank; 

(3) from house-tanks, located in high tank towers of 
the buildings; 

(4) from underground pressure tanks in connection 
with compressed air-tanks; 

(5) from direct pressure by pumping into the service 
niains; • 

(6) from special fire-pumps in the pump-house, con- 
nected with fire mains which supply the inside stand- 
pipes and fire valves, as well as the outside fire 
hydrants. 

A large reserve of water, stored in elevated reservoirs 



2i6 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

or tanks, and instantly available in case of fire, is desir- 
able. Where fire pressure is obtained by direct pump- 
ing, the pumping plant should always be provided in 
duplicate. 

Water-tanks in the attics or towers of buildings must 
be safely supported on sufficiently strong steel I-beams, 
resting on the main walls of the building. 

Fire-extinguishing Apparatus. — The fire-extinguishing 
plant of a hospital should comprise : 

(a) inside fire apparatus; 

(6) outside fire apparatus. 

Inside Fire Apparatus. — A hospital should have the 
following appliances for inside fire protection, viz.: 
Lines of fire stand-pipes, with fire valves, fire hose, hose 
reels or racks, hose- or play-pipes, and nozzles, coup- 
lings and spanners; chemical and ordinary fire-pails 
and buckets of water; portable chemical or pneumatic 
fire-extinguishers; fire axes, hatches, saws, crow-bars, 
and fire-hooks, stored in glass cases ; steam fire-extinguish- 
ing-pipes, and jets to the attics, controlled by valves, 
which should be placed in the cellar, preferably of an- 
other building than that in which the jet operates; these 
pipes to be connected with the high-pressure steam 
main; also an automatic sprinkler system. 

Outside Fire Apparatus. — A hospital should be 
equipped with the following outside fire apparatus, viz.: 
Fire hydrants and water mains; hose carts, with 2^- 
inch fire-hose, spanners, and hydrant wrenches; chemi- 
cal fire-engines; fire axes, hooks, saws; also some fire 
ladders; also with outside fire department connections 
to the inside fire stand-pipes. 



APPENDICES. 



217 



Fire Pumps. — Fire-pumps should be either direct- 
acting duplex steam fire-pumps, of the "Underwriter" 
pattern, built extra strong and provided with steam 
and water ports of large areas; or they may be rotary 
steam or electric pumps.- 

Fire Mains and Water Mains. — Special fire mains 
should not be less than 8 inches inside diameter. Or- 
dinary water mains, supplying outside fire hydrants, 
should not be less than 6 inches in diameter. The 
branches to single fire hydrants should be 4 inches, to 
double hydrants 6 inches. 

Fire Hydrants. — The fire hydrants of a hospital should 
be of a uniform pattern, with standard fire department 
connections. All hydrants should be post hydrants, 
either single or double, anti-freezing and provided with 
frost cases. Each hydrant should be controlled by a 
separate gate- valve, and these should be provided with 
indicator-posts, or means for showing positively whether 
the underground valves are open or closed. These posts 
are better than ordinary valve-boxes and do away with the 
annoyance and delay occasioned by searching for a valve- 
box which may have been covered with dirt or snow. 

The number of fire hydrants to be provided depends 
upon the size, number, and extent of the hospital build- 
ings. The distance between the hydrants should not 
be more than 250 feet. It is true economy to provide 
a large number of hydrants, as the amount of fire-hose 
required will be thereby reduced. All hydrants should 
be provided with caps. Wrenches and spanners should 
be provided for operating the hydrants and are best 
kept on the hose carts. 



2i8 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Hydrants should be set far enough from the buildings 
to escape injury from falling walls, also to permit the 
men of the fire brigade to operate the hydrants during 
a fire. 

All fire hydrants should be regularly tested and in- 
spected, both in summer and in winter. 

Fire Hose for Hydrants. — The fire hose for outdoor 
hydrants, should be best quality rubber-lined cotton or 
linen fire-hose, 2 J inches inside diameter and provided 
with standard fire department couplings. All hose 
should be of make approved by the Board of Fire 
Underwriters. 

For each hydrant provide at least 100 feet of hose. 
When operating the fire hose during a fire, remember 
that the shorter the line of hose, the less loss of pres- 
sure by friction will occur, and the more effective will 
the fire stream be. 

Hose Carts. — The hose carts should be light yet strong, 
and of sim^ple construction. Each hose cart should carry 
about 300 feet of fire-hose. The number of hose carts 
for a hospital depends upon the number of fire hydrants, 
but there should not be less than two hose carts. 

Portable Chemical Engines. — Each hospital should 
have at least one portable chemical two-wheeled en- 
gine, of 50 gallons capacity. 

Inside Fire Standpipes. — The hospital buildings should 
be equipped with inside fire stand-pipes. Each building 
should have from one to three lines, with outlets on 
each floor, including the basement and the attic. 

The diameter of the stand-pipes should be from three 
to four inches; the material should be extra heavy 



APPENDICES. 219 

galvanized screw- jointed wrought iron pipe. Stand- 
pipes should be located in halls and in heated staircases, 
but in no case where there is danger that the pipes 
would freeze. 

The branches for inside fire-valves should be i J inches, 
and the outlets should be placed about- 6 J feet from 
the floor line, to bring the fire- valve out of reach of 
patients. 

In the basement, the fire stand-pipes should be con- 
nected with the supply mains of each building. The 
running lines in the basement should be preferably placed 
below the cellar floor, at such a depth as to be safe 
from injury from falling walls. 

Fire Valves. — Fire valves should be extra heavy brass 
or steam metal fire valves, of the full waterway or gate 
pattern, and not globe valves. The size of fire-valves 
for use on the fire stand-pipes should be ij inches. 

Fire Hose for Inside Use. — The fire-hose for inside 
use should be best quality unlined linen fire-hose, war- 
ranted not to leak and to stand a pressure of 400 pounds 
per square inch. All fire-hose should be of quality ap- 
proved by the Board of Underwriters and in accordance 
with their special specifications. A good twilled cotton 
rubber-lined fire hose is also to be approved, provided 
the rubber lining is not too heavy. The inside diam- 
eter of all fire hose for inside use should be i J inches.- 

Hose Reels or Racks, Hose Couplings and Fire 
Nozzles. — All inside fire hose should be supported on 
hose reels or racks. At each hose reel or fire-valve a 
hose spanner should be provided. The fire hose should 
have standard couplings, 



2 20 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

At each fire-valve provide in connection with the 
fire hose a brass or nickel-plated fire nozzle, same to 
be at least 15 inches long, smooth on the inside, of 
standard fire department pattern, and with either i inch 
or I J inch nozzle opening. 

Fire Pails. — Each ward of a hospital should be pro- 
vided with at least six fire pails, which must be con- 
stantly kept filled. Fire pails should be durable, light 
and strong, with rounded bottoms, and set on shelves. 
A few special chemical fire pails might also be kept 
handy in addition to the regular pails. 

Chemical and Pneumatic Hand Extinguishers. — The 
small portable hand-extinguishers are useful and to be 
recommended for hospitals. They should be kept under 
lock and key, and the key should be in the hands of 
the head attendant or nurse of each ward. 

The pneumatic fire extinguishers are less dangerous 
to handle than chemical extinguishers; the damage, 
wh6n they are brought into use, is also apt to be 
less. 

Automatic Sprinkler System. — In the specially hazard- 
ous parts of a hospital, such as the laundry, the work- 
shop, attics with mansard windows, etc., a wet-pipe 
automatic sprinkler system may be installed. The 
sprinkler equipment should be complete in every res- 
pect and should conform to the standard requirements 
of the Board of Fire Underwriters. 

Fire-alarm System. — A hospital should be provided 
with a fire-alarm system, and fire alarm boxes should 
be placed in every building; also at suitable points 
on the outside of the hospital. The signal-boxes should 



APPENDICES. 221 

be numbered and painted a bright red, so as to be easily 
found in an emergency. Each of the attendants of 
the hospital should be provided with a pass-key for the 
boxes, and the keys should be registered in the super- 
intendent's central office. 

The engine- or pump-room, or the power-house, should 
be provided with alarm gong and indicator; also with 
a fire whistle. 

Besides this, the hospital should always have tele- 
graphic "and telephonic communication with the city 
fire-department headquarters. 

Hose Tower and House. — It is a good plan to pro- 
vide for the hospital a hose-house, containing the hose 
carts, the portable chemical fire-engine, fire hooks, axes, 
poles, etc., and a room for a hose rack for drying the 
hose after use. A hose-tower, at least 50 feet high, is 
recommended for the latter purpose. 

Hospital Fire Brigade. — A hospital should have a well- 
organized and drilled private or hospital fire brigade. 
Hospitals within the city limits do not require as full 
an equipment as those located at the outskirts or in 
the country. 

All hospital attendants and employees should be in- 
structed in the use and handling of the hospital fire 
apparatus. In case of an outbreak of fire each man 
should have a fixed designated place, and a known duty 
to perform. 

Practice drills should be held at regular intervals, 
and also occasionally without previous notice. 

The hospital should issue a special ''fire manual,'' with 
which every employee should make himself familiar. 



222 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Fire Districts. — Plan of Districts; Location of Hy- 
drants and Fire Alarm Boxes. — A large hospital, com- 
posed of a group of buildings, should be divided into fire 
districts. A plan or map of the hospital and grounds 
should be prepared to show the division into fire dis- 
tricts, also the location of all outside hydrants, inside 
fire-valves and of the fire-alarm boxes. 

The plan should also show the water supply system, 
the special fire mains if any are provided, also the loca- 
tion of the fire-pump, of the hose house, etc. 

Fire Escapes and Fireproof Stairs. — Each of the build- 
ings of a hospital should have at least two separate and 
independent staircases. Each of the larger wards should 
have two exits with doors opening outwards. The build- 
ings should also be provided with approved outside fire- 
escapes, of such construction that they may be safely 
used by those patients who are not confined to their 
beds. 

Rules as to Fire Prevention. — A hospital should have 
some printed rules on fire prevention, which every em- 
ployee and each nurse should study. The rules should 
relate to the use and care of matches, of oily rags and 
wastes, to the management of the heating apparatus 
and of the steam-pipes, to the electric light wiring, the 
care of laundries, and drying rooms, etc. 

I quote a few paragraphs from such rules prepared 
by an English firm of manufacturers of fire protection 
apparatus : 

"It is intended that the following rules should be fre- 
quently and carefully considered by all employed on 
the hospital premises: 



APPENDICES. 223 

Precautions Against Fire. 

Matches and Tapers. — "Great caution is necessary in 
the use of matches and tapers, the safe extinction of 
which after use should be made certain. Only the 
so-called "safety" matches should be used in a hos- 
pital. 

Watchman's Lamp. — "A covered light or watchman's 
lamp should be used, not only by the watchman, but 
by the attendants, on night duty. 

Smoking. — "In hospitals and other public institu- 
tions smoking should be permitted only in the apart- 
ments specially reserved for this purpose. 

Fires in Grates. — "Fires in open fire-places and grates 
should not be taken out or raked out on the hearth, 
but the embers should be put back in such a way as to 
prevent their falling off, thus allowing the fire to die 
out in its proper place. Wood or other fuel, intended 
to be used in the grate the next morning, should not 
be placed in close proximity to the heated grate. 

Flues. — "Care should be taken that flues are properly 
constructed and kept clean. 

Gas. — Gas Leakage. — Jointed Gas Brackets. — "Gas 
should be carefully turned out when no longer required. 
If an escape of gas occurs, the doors and windows should 
be opened at once. The gas leak should be traced by 
the sense of smell only if possible. The greatest cau- 
tion should be employed in the introduction of a light. 
This should never be used until windows and doors have 
been kept open for some time, while the gas has been 
turned off at the main gas meter. 



224 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"Care should be taken that no inflammable material 
is within reach of any jointed gas brackets. 

Accumulation of Waste Material. — "The accumula- 
tion of waste material of any description should on no 
account be permitted in any part of the premises. Fires 
have been caused by the throwing of hot ashes into 
dust bins. 

Smell of Fire not to be Disregarded. — "On no account 
should the slightest smell of fire or smoke be allowed 
to pass unheeded, but the cause should at once be ascer- 
tained. Many serious fires, caused by defective hearths 
and flues, stove-pipes passing through floors or walls, 
etc., might have been subdued at their outbreak if this 
precaution had betii attended to. 

Everyone Should be Used to the Fire Appliances. — ^Fire 
Drill. — "Every person employed on the premises should 
be made acquainted with the use and positions of the 
fire hydrants, fire valves, and other fire protection appa- 
ratus in the building. This apparatus should be thor- 
oughly overhauled and cleaned at least four times a 
year. These occasions would be convenient opportu- 
nities for fire drill. 

"Everyone should be fully instructed as to an alter- 
native means of escape, in case the flight by the ordinary 
staircase should be cut off. All apparatus necessary for 
this purpose should be periodically inspected and tested. 

In Case of an Outbreak of Fire. 

Extinguishing Fire. — "A jet from a portable hand 
extinguisher will frequently be sufficient to subdue a 
fire in its incipiency , or a pail of water may be used with 



APPENDICES. 225 

good results, but in any case the hose from the nearest 
stand-pipe fire valve should, in the meantime, be run 
out. The hose nozzle should be brought as near to 
the fire as possible, in order that the full force of the 
jet may be utilized. Sudden bends or kinks in the 
hose should be avoided, as they not only reduce the 
water pressure at the nozzle, but also place the hose in 
danger of bursting. Care should always be taken to 
avoid unnecessary damage by a too plentiful applica- 
tion of water. 

Removal of Inmates. — "If the fire is judged to be 
dangerous, it will be of the utmost importance to secure 
the immediate removal from the premises of all per- 
sons except those engaged in extinguishing the fire or 
removing property. The fact of a fire having broken 
out should be conveyed to the sick as calmly as possible. 

Escape. — "If patients of a hospital are in bed at the 
time of an outbreak of fire, they should be dressed by 
the attendants with whatever is readily available, and 
on leaving the rooms, all the doors should be closed. 
The escape should be effected either by the regular 
stairs, if possible, of else, if this is no longer possible, 
the alternative measures previously arranged for, by the 
roof, or by fire escapes, should be at once made use of. 

Send Alarm to Nearest Fire Station. — "An attendant 
should at once give the alarm to the nearest fire engine- 
house, without waiting to see whether those on the 
spot are likely to be able to extinguish the fire or not. 

Keep Doors Shut. — "It is of the utmost importance 
to shut, as far as possible, and keep shut, all doors, 
windows, and other openings to the outer air. 



226 SANITATION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Free Breathing. — "In the midst of much smoke, the 
air is comparatively clear towards the floor, conse- 
quently progress may be made on the hands and knees, 
keeping the face as low as possible. A wet silk handker- 
chief, sponge, worsted stocking, or other flannel sub- 
stance, drawn over the mouth and the nostrils, permits 
free breathing, and to a great extent excludes the smoke 
from the lungs. 

Turn Off the Gas at the Meter. — " Should the outbreak 
of fire promise to be serious, the gas should be turned 
off at the meter. 

Coolness and Presence of Mind. — "The want of cool- 
ness and presence of mind on such occasions is by far 
the greatest hindrance to the preservation of life and 
property. In dealing with fire, a cool judgment and 
steady perseverance are far more effective than any 
impetuous and fitful exertions that may be made. 

Clothing on Fire. — "In the case of the clothes of the 
person of any one taking fire, a hearth rug or blanket 
or anything else similar readily available should be at 
once rolled around the body, thus smothering and crush- 
ing out the flames. If there be no helper at hand, the 
person whose clothes are in flames, should roll himself 
or herself over and over on the floor. On no account 
should he or she rush about from one room to another, 
for this, of course, only fans the flames into more fury 
and makes the consequences more serious." 

Many of the foregoing rules and hints are also applic- 
able to school buildings. 
' For further particulars on this subject see: 



APPENDICES. 227 

Dr. p. M. Wise, "Fire Manual of the St. Lawrence 
State Hospital." 

L. H. Prince, "The Fire Protection of Hospitals for 
Insane." 

Wm. Paul Gerhard, "The Prevention of Fire, chiefly 
with reference to Hospitals and other Public Institu- 
tions." 

Wm. Paul Gerhard, "Theatre Fires and Panics; 
Their Causes and Prevention." 

APPENDIX B. 

From a report by H. Endemann, Ph.D., on "Chemical 
Examination of the Air of Various Public Buildin-gs," 
the following notes are taken relative to air contam- 
ination in some of the theatres of New York City. This 
matter appeared in the third annual report of the New 
York Board of Health in 1873. 

"In examining the air of theatres and public halls, it is 
to be taken into consideration that in these cases we have 
two sources for the carbonic acid in the air, the one being res- 
piration, the other the combustion of illuminating gas. The 
latter item, on examination, proved to be of immense import- 
ance. 

"In some special cases, the proportion was approximately 
determined with the aid of the theatre statistics, giving the 
number of persons present in the theatre on the particular 
evening when the examination was made, and the amount 
of gas consumed per hour. It was thus ascertained that, in 
one theatre with slim attendance, the proportion of carbonic 
acid formed by respiration to that formed by combustion of 
gas was as I to 7. In another theatre, with a full house, the 
proportion was found to be as i to 4^, and even in the most 
crowded and poorest illuminated theatres the proportion 
would not become less than i to 2, so that even under the 



228 



SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 



.So;- 


Full house 
Full house 
Full house 


Slim attendance 
Slim attendance 
Crowded house 
Crowded house 


Moderately full 
Moderately full 
Full house 


<u 

CO to 



^^ 

^^ 
d d 


Moderately full 
Full house 
Full house 
Full house 


Full house 
Full house 
Slim attendance 
Slim attendance 


•H C4-) 

O rt 


H 00 t^ 


H t^ 10 W 


On 


On lO 


NO W 


00 t^ 


!>. OsOO 
CO O M 


Ov t^O CO 


00 r^^O 
p« w N 


CO NO 

CO CO 


Tt 


CO t^ w CO 

M H H W 


CM • 

O lU 


Gallery 

Parterre 

Parterre 


Gallery 
Parterre 
Gallery 
Parterre 


Gallery 

Parterre 

Parterre 


Balcony 
Gallery 


Balcony 
Balcony 
Gallery 
Parterre 


Parterre 
Parterre 
Parterre 
Balcony 


hi 
o 

0) 

»-■ 
rt 

0) 


Tony Pastor's 
Tony Pastor's 
Atlantic Garden 


Stadt Theatre 
Stadt Theatre 
Bowery Theatre 
Bowery Theatre 


Union Square Theatre 
Cooper Institute Hall 
Germania Theatre 


to 


Booth's Theatre 
Olympic Theatre 
Fifth Avenue Theatre 
Fifth Avenue Theatre 


Athenaeum Theatre 
Bryant Theatre 
Grand Opera House 
Grand Opera House 


0) 


i i 












S S S S. 


S S S 


^ s 


S S S S 


S S S § 


S p. Oh 

CL O O 

"2 roi^ 


Ph Oh PM CU 

vo CO lO 

Tl- 10 


Oh Oh Oh 

in 
CO w 


Oh Oh 

10 

CO H 


Oh Oh Oh Oh 

m 10 to m 


Oh Oh Oh Ph 

"^ 10 

CO w C>J 


0\ On 


00 00 ON ON 


On 0\ On 


On On 


On OnOO 00 


00 On ON ON 


0) 

Q 






























































March 27, 1872 
March 27, 1872 
March 27, 1872 


March 29, 1872 
March 29, 1872 
March 29, 1872 
March 29, 1872 


March 31, 1872 
March 31, 1872 
Marcn 31, 1872 


April 4, 1872 . . 
April 4, 1872 , . 


April 9, 1872. . 
April 9, 1872. . 
April 9, 1872. . 
April 9, 1872. . 


April II, 1872. 
April II, 1872. 
April II, 1872. 
April II, 1872. 



' APPENDICES. 229 

least favorable circumstances, but one-third of all the carbonic 
acid found could be due to respiration. Taking it for granted 
that the dangerous properties of a vitiated atmosphere grow 
more in proportion to the organic vapor present than with 
the carbonic acid alone, the importance of this consideration 
becomes at once evident." 

The preceding tabulated statement gives the results 
obtained. 

APPENDIX C. 

In the year 1905, the New York Butchers' Dressed 
Meat Company opened its new abattoirs, located in 
Eleventh Avenue, between Thirty-ninth and Fortieth 
Streets, a plant representing an outlay of one and one- 
half millions of dollars, and which is said to be the 
Inost complete of its kind in the United States. The 
following short description of it is taken from the New 
York Times: 

"The main building, of brick and iron, is six stories high. 
It is connected with the company's own piers at the foot of 
West Thirty-ninth Street. 

' * When the steers are driven from the cars a gate is closed 
behind them at Thirty-ninth Street and Eleventh Avenue, 
and they follow two big white bell wethers up a series of in- 
clines until they arrive on the roof of the big building where 
the pens are located. 

"On a mezzanine floor, also open to the air and below the 
beef pens, are pens for calves, sheep, and lambs. No hogs 
are slaughtered, as the whole establishment is carried on in 
"kosher" fashion. 

'On the floor below the roof is the slaughtering room, with 
the newest machinery. This room is 20 feet high, and so 
arranged that all offal is at once disposed of. Every bit of 
the by-product, down to the last tuft of hair, is utilized. 

"The killing is done by eight 'schochets', or licensed 



23© SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

slaughterers, under the supervision of Rabbi Philip Klein, who 
sees to it that every detail of the Mosaic law is carried out. 
"The steers are driven into small pens ranged on one side 
of the room. The ' schochet ' passes his long keen-edged knife 
to the head-man, who carefully tries it on his thumb nail to 
see that there is no nick in its keen edge. Should a killer 
use a nicked knife the meat would be 'trafe' and could not 
be eaten by the orthodox Jews. 

"Suddenly the door of the pen raises. Quick as a flash a 
butcher has thrown a chain round the hind legs of the steer, 
and by touching a button the huge body is whirled into the 
air. As the head swings around the * schochet ' draws his long 
knife across the animal's throat, severing the windpipe and 
jugular vein. It is claimed that this is the most humane and 
cleanly method of slaughtering. 

"Then the butchers get to work, and in a twinkling the 
halves of the beef are hanging on trolleys ready to be taken 
down to the refrigerating rooms. There are fifteen of these 
rooms in the building, in which a temperature of 34 degrees 
Fahrenheit is maintained. The rooms have a capacity of 
14,000 quarters of beef. Exactly the same methods are used 
in killing the small animal stock, the carcasses of which are 
kept in separate cooling rooms. 

"Across the street, at the corner of Thirty-ninth Street and 
Eleventh Avenue, is the poultry department. This department 
is not under the 'kosher' law. 

** In the near future the company will receive carcasses from 
independent packers in the West and distribute them on com- 
mission. The capacity is now 4000 carcasses a week, although 
but 2500 cattle will be slaughtered for some time." 

Very, complete technical and illustrated descriptions 
of this model abattoir are given in the Engineering 
Record of June 30, 1906, and in The American Archi- 
tect of June 20, 1906. 

The following description of a model slaughter-house 
equipped with a refrigerating plant, is quoted from the 
American Architect: 



APPENDICES. 231 

"This plant was designed to be erected in the City of New 
Orleans, and comprises a stockyard, a slaughter house, and 
salesrooms both for local trade and for shipping by refrigerator 
cars. It is fitted out with all the latest scientific and sanitary 
appliances used for handling the stock in the best manner, 
housing them to the best advantage in the stockyards, and 
for killing them in the slaughterhouse. 

"The most interesting and most important part of the plant 
is the several stages of cooling to which the meat is subjected 
before it is in shape to keep any length of time or to be used 
at once. The plant is planned to allow the increasing of the 
capacity by the simple addition of adjoining buildings, with- 
out in the least interfering with the present arrangements of 
the slaughter-houses and refrigerators; space being left in the 
engine-room for an additional refrigerating-machine and for 
brine tanks. The last-named is the secret of the success of 
the business of preparing refrigerated meat. Ice itseK is not 
used at all, but the slaughterhouses, the chill rooms, the stor- 
age- and salesrooms are so supplied with pipes from the refriger- 
ating-machine as to allow these several rooms to be kept at 
the several required temperatures. The meat, as it comes 
from the killing beds, is allowed to stand a certain length of 
time, in accordance with the temperature of the atmosphere, 
after which it is placed in the cooling boxes or chilling rooms 
to remove the animal heat. It is then taken to the wholesale 
store rooms, which are kept at a temperature allowing it to 
be preserved for an almost indefinite length of time if so de- 
sired. 

"From the store-rooms, in which the meat hangs very close 
together, it is removed to the retail store-rooms or show-rooms, 
where it hangs on each side of an alley, down which the sales- 
man and purchaser walk to inspect the meat. After the pur- 
chase, the beef, mutton, lamb, pork, or veal, is taken off the 
show tracks, hung on the delivery track and sent out to the 
sales-room, where after being weighed it is removed by the buyer, 
sent back to the refrigerator for temporary storage, or else 
shipped in the refrigerator-cars. 

"During all this progress, from the killing-beds in the 
slaughter-house to the buyers' wagon or car, the meat is sus- 
pended from an overhead single-track railroad, hung to hooks 
on rollers, which travel on the overhead tracks. 



232 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

"The tracks are continued from the beds out over the scales 
and down to the corner doors and into the several refriger- 
ators, with numerous switches, branches, cut-outs, etc., needed 
to move the meat without lifting it by hand. 

"The slaughter-houses are fitted up with exhaust fans for 
mechanical ventilation, to assist the natural ventilation in 
very hot weather. They have water-tight floors, separate 
pipes for blood and waste, a platform upon which the offal 
is wheeled and dumped into a car, and then it travels on the 
railroad tracks to the rendering-house, which is well removed 
from the refrigerators. 

"The abattoirs have improved catch-pens, 'power from the 
engine in the power-house, abundance of light and ventilation 
from side windows through slat headlights, and turret or moni- 
tor .skylights. The refrigerators are insulated with asphaltum 
sheathing paper and y tongued and grooved boards, forming 
a series of air spaces, the doors being some 6 or 8 inches thick, 
with air spaces and rubber on edges, and the windows having 
four sashes, all being as near to air-tight as possible. 

"An important feature of the plant is the fact of its being 
built on the slow-burning construction principle. That is, 
the first floor is 5 or 6 inches thick and rests on girders about 
8 or 9 feet apart, the roof being formed the same way, with 
3 or 4 inch planks and girders about 10 feet apart. The ad- 
vantages of this method of building are many, chief among 
which is the fact of there being no enclosed spaces for the 
harboring of vermins as in the ordinary construction, and the 
rates of insurance being greatly in its favor, as is shown by the 
rates on the mills built in this manner. The particular benefit 
of this timber flooring in refrigerators is not so much the reduc- 
tion of insurance, which, of course, is low from the nature of 
the business, and the use of electric lights, but because by 
using this flooring the hangers by which the tracks are sup- 
ported can be placed in any spot, regardless of the beams and 
girders; whereas the old method of securing the hangers was 
to locate the floor- joists with reference especially to the tracks, 
and in making the necessary curves and switches this was a 
very difficult task. 

"This plant is arranged with the view of having the busi- 
ness center at the office building, on each side of which are 
the salesrooms, one for beef and for small stock (meaning 



APPENDICES. 2 S3 

mutton, lamb, veal, and pork), each being kept in separate 
departments. The office building, also built on the slow-burn- 
ing principle, is a very substantial structure and has in the 
upper portion a large tank, supplied from a pump in the power- 
house and having pipes extending in every direction to sup- 
ply the several fixtures in the usual way and out to the troughs 
in stock-yards and to the slaughter-houses, with large fire- 
plugs and hose-pipe at suitable spots for a fire-guard as well. 
The tank-house is thoroughly ventilated by the tower-house. 

"The plant is supplied with a large power-house containing 
the several pumps, dynamo, engine, refrigerating machines, 
and the brine tanks. Adjoining is the chimney-stack and 
boiler-room, with coal-sheds attached. 

"The rendering-house and granary stand on the railroad 
track and the whole plant is enclosed with a stockade, except 
where the main buildings run out to the street line. 

"These last are designed in a style of architecture very suit- 
able to the particular locality, being an adaptation of Spanish 
Renaissance, and taken as a whole make a pleasing impression. 
The architect has made a special study of this class of buildings 
and believes he has succeeded in combining a satisfactory 
exterior with an interior in which are combined special features 
that are very necessary in the business, a business, by the 
way, which in the good old times was relegated to the most 
out-of-the-way place, in any old tumbled-down building, in 
every community, and to be shunned because of the supposed 
necessity of the accompanying filth and odors. But, as now 
conducted in the most improved slaughter-houses it is obliged 
to be as cleanly as any other producing industry. The Govern- 
ment has inspectors to pass on every animal killed and tag all 
meat before it can be exposed for sale, and the competition 
in this business, as in all others, compels the men in it to use 
every effort to produce the best results, which means good 
wholesome meat prepared with the cleanest possible surround- 
ings and put in the most attractive shape,'* 



234 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 



APPENDIX D. 

Extract from "Regulations governing the Meat 
Inspection of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture." 

(Issued under authority conferred on the Secretary of 
Agriculture by the act of Congress, approved June 30, 
1906.) 

SANITATION. 

Regulation 10. — Upon receipt of an application for inspec- 
tion, the Secretary of Agriculture will cause to be made an 
examination of the premises, and will indicate the require- 
ments for sanitation and the necessary facilities for inspection. 

Regulation ii. — In order that the carcasses of cattle, sheep, 
swine, and goats, and the meats and meat food products thereof, 
may be admitted to interstate or foreign commerce, it is necess- 
ary under the law that the establishments in which the ani- 
mals are slaughtered, or the meats and meat food products 
are prepared, cured, packed, stored, or handled, shall be suit- 
ably lighted and ventilated and maintained in a sanitary con- 
dition. All work in sueh establishments shall be performed 
in a cleanly and sanitary manner. 

(a) Ceilings, side walls, pillars, partitions, etc., shall be fre- 
quently whitewashed or painted, or, where this is impractic- 
able, they shall, when necessary, be washed, scraped, or other- 
wise rendered sanitary. Where floors or other parts of a 
building, or tables or other parts of the equipment, are so old 
or in such condition that they cannot be readily made sani- 
tary, they shall be removed and replaced by suitable mate- 
rials or otherwise put in a condition acceptable to the inspector 
in charge. All floors upon which meats are piled during the 
process of curing shall be so constructed that they can be kept 
in a clean and sanitary condition, and such meats shall also 
be kept clean. 

(b) All trucks, trays, and other receptacles, all chutes, plat- 
forms, racks, tables, etc., and all knives, saws, cleavers, and 
other tools, and all utensils and machinery used in moving, 



APPENDICES. 235 

handling, cutting, chopping, mixing, canning, or other process, 
shall be thoroughly cleansed daily, if used. 

(c) The aprons, smocks, or other outer clothing of em- 
ployees who handle meat in contact with such clothing shall 
be of a material that is readily cleaned and made sanitary, 
and shall be cleansed daily, if used. Employees who handle 
meats or meat-food products shall be required to keep their 
hands clean. 

(d) All toilet-rooms, urinals, and dressing-rooms shall be 
entirely separated from compartments in which carcasses are 
dressed or meats or meat-food products are cured, stored, 
packed, handled or prepared. They shall be sufficient in 
number, ample in size, and fitted with modern lavatory accom- 
modations, including toilet paper, soap, running- water, towels, 
etc.. They shall be properly lighted, suitably ventilated, and 
kept in a sanitary condition. Managers of establishments 
must see that employees keep themselves clean.* 

(e) The rooms or compartments in which meats or meat- 
food . products are prepared, cured, stored, packed, or other- 
wise handled, shall be lighted and ventilated in a manner ac- 
ceptable to the inspector in charge and shall be so located 
that odors from toilet-rooms, catch basins, casing depart- 
ments, tank-rooms, hide-cellars, etc., do not permeate them. 
All rooms or compartments shall be provided • with cuspidors, 
which' employees who expectorate shall be required to use. 

(/) Persons affected with tuberculosis or any other com- 
municable disease shall not be knowingly employed in any 
of the departments of establishments where carcasses are dressed, 
meats handled, or meat-food products prepared, and any 
employee suspected of being so affected shall be so reported 
by the inspector in charge to the manager of the establish- 
ment and to the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry. 

(g) The fattening of hogs or other animals on the refuse 
of slaughter-houses will not be permitted on the premises of 
an establishment where inspection is maintained, and no use 
incompatible with proper sanitation shall be made of any 



* This paragraph omits the very important requirement 
that toilet-rooms must be provided entirely separate for men 
and for women, W. P. G. 



236 SANITATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

part of the premises on which such estabHshment is located. 
All yards, fences, pens, chutes, alleys, etc., belonging to the 
premises of such establishment shall, whether they are used 
or not, be maintained in a sanitary condition. 

{h) Butchers who dress diseased carcasses shall cleanse 
their hands of all grease and then immerse them in a prescribed 
disinfectant and rinse them in clear water before engaging 
again in dressing or handling healthy carcasses. All butchers' 
implements used in dressing diseased carcasses shall be cleansed 
of all grease and then sterilized, either in boiling water or by 
immersion in a prescribed disinfectant, and rinsed in clear 
water before again being used in dressing healthy carcasses. 

Facilities, for such cleansing and disinfection, approved by 
the inspector in charge, shall be provided by the establish- 
ment. Separate trucks, etc., shall be furnished for handling, 
diseased carcasses and parts. Following the slaughter of an 
animal affected with an infectious disease a stop shall be made 
until the implements have been cleansed and disinfected, unless 
duplicate implements are provided. 

{i) Inspectors are required to furnish their own knives for 
use in dissecting or incising diseased carcasses or parts, and 
are required to use the same means for disinfecting knives, 
hands, etc., that are prescribed for employees of the establish- 
ment. 

(/) Meats and meat-food products intended for rendering 
into edible products must be prevented from falling on the 
floor, while being emptied into the tanks, by the use of some 
device, such as a metal funnel. 

{k) Plans of new plants and of plants to be remodeled should 
be submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture. 



Extracts from " Definitions of Words and Terms." 

Carcass. — This word shall mean an animal that has been 
killed under these regulations, including all parts which are 
to be used for food. 

Primal Parts of Carcass. — This phrase shall mean the 
usual sections or cuts of the dressed carcass commonly known 
in the trade, such as sides, quarters, shoulders, hams, backs, 
bellies, etc., and entire edible organs, such as tongues, livers, 



APPENDICES. 237 

etc., before they have been cut, shredded, or otherwise sub- 
divided preHminary to use in the manufacture of meat-food 
products. 

Meat-food Products. — This term shall mean any product 
used for food into the composition of which any portion of 
the carcass enters, or in the preparation of which any portion 
of the carcass is used, including lard, mince-meat, extracts, 
gelatin, oleomargarine, butterine, soups, etc. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



A 

' PAGE 

Abattoirs -. 175, 186 

buildings composing an 196 

development of 191 

drainage of 204 

European 208 

lighting of , 205 

object of 186 

planning of 198 

private 190 

sanitation of 175 

sanitary features of 202 

sanitary inspection service of 208 

site for. 195 

unsanitary conditions in 193 

Absorption tiles .^ 10 

Accident room in schools 137 

Accumulation of waste material 224 

Acoustics in theatres 70 

Action of waters on metals 16 

Adjuncts of slaughter-houses 198 

Administration building, for abattoirs 197 

Advantages of public or municipal markets 178 

of rain baths in schools 154 

of central abattoirs 188 

Air supply for classrooms 141 

analysis of, in theatres 69, 227 

compressors 17 

contamination in schools 142 

flushing in schools 141 

tanks 17 

239 



240 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Alarm boxes, fire 222 

Alarm of fire 225 

Alignment of sewers 6 

Alum in filtration 18 

American abattoirs 192 

Amount of water required for hospitals 12 

Analysis, biological, of water 14 

chemical, of water 14 

Apparatus, fire protection 146, 216 

Appendices 215 

Area of school grounds 120 

Areas .- 70, 112 

Arrangement of stage dressing-rooms 67 

Arrangements, sanitary in schools 146 

Artificial lighting of churches 107 

illumination of classrooms 144 

Assembly and special rooms in schools 128 

Aspect of schools 121 

Audiences, in theatres 68 

Auditorium in churches 104 

Automatic flushing 7 

sprinkler system 220 

sprinklers, for laundry 51 

Axioms for hospital construction 3 



B 

Back-air pipes 24 

Bacterial methods of sewage purification 158 

Bakery 48 

Baptistry 113 

Basements or cellars of churches iii 

Basement of schools 127 

toilet-rooms in schools 147 

Bathhouse for hospitals 41 

Bathroom floors 38 

walls 39 

Bathrooms for hospital wards 38 

for officers and medical staff . 43 

Baths, school 153 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 241 

PAGE 

Bathtubs, number of, for hospital wards 39 

Beautifying school grounds 122 

Berkefeld filter 18 

Bibliography of abattoirs and markets 210 

on churches 114 

on hospital sanitation 57 

on schools 1 63 

on theatres 86 

Biological analysis of water 14 

methods of sewage purification 205 

Blackboards 135 

Boiler-house, for abattoir 197 

Boiler-house for hospitals 51 

Boiler-room 81 

Boiler-room in school 124 

Boston slaughter-houses 193 

market in 178 

Boy's urinals for schools 150 

Brass floor plates 30 

piping 27 

Brigade, fire , 221 

Building committee, for hospitals 3 

site for churches 103 

Building, exterior, for schools 129 

Buildings composing an abattoir. . 196 

Butchers' associations 190 

Butchers' utensils 207 

By-products of slaughtering 197 

C 

Candle illumination in theatres 82 

Candles, for schools 145 

in churches 107 

Care of class-rooms 158 

of toilet-rooms in schools 152 

Carpets 69, 107, 129 

dust in 84 

Carts, hose 218 

Casings for pipes 26 



242 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Cattle epidemics 189 

markets 180 

yards, site for igu 

Ceilings and floors of school buildings 125 

of class rooms 125 

Cellars for markets . ' 182 

in churches 103, no 

Cement joints 7 

Central abattoirs, advantages of 188 

chandelier, in theatres 82 

stock yards '. 192 

Cesspools II, 157 

Chamberlain-Pasteur filter 18 

Chemical analysis of water 14 

engines 218 

examination of air in theatres . 227 

Chemical precipitation 11 

Choice of site for schools ^ . . . 119 

Churches, bibliography on. 114 

Churches, heating of • 108 

on open squares 103 

sanitary defects in , 90 

sanitary inspection of 98 

Church hygiene 97, 102 

Church inspection, by board of health in Chicago 100 

in New York ". 98 

lighting 107 

Church organs, affected by temperature 109 

sanitation 89, 90, 95 

ventilation loi 

Cisterns 8, 19 

City hospitals 13 

Class rooms, cubic space of 132 

dimensions of 130 

disposition of 126 

doors of 133 

floor space in ' 132 

height of 131 

length of 131 

standard shape of 130 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 243 

PAGE 

Class, walls of 124 

width of 131 

Cleaning, daily in schools 159 

periodical in schools 160 

Cleanliness, in hospitals 4 

in theatres 83 

maintenance of, in schools 158 

maintenance of, in markets 184 

maintenance of, for abattoirs 206 

Cleanouts 23, 30 

Closed pressure tanks 17 

Closets, dry 150 

outside, for schools 150 

Clothing, on fire 226 

Cold storage plant for markets 183 

Cold-storage rooms 49 

Combined sewerage, for hospitals. 5 

Concrete foundations for pipes 7 

Condemned food 185 

Conditions, unsanitary of abattoirs 193 

Construction features of abattoirs 200 

of churches 103 

of school buildings 123 

Constructive features of market buildings 180 

Consumption of water in hospitals 13 

Contamination of air in schools '. 142 

Control of abattoirs by State Board of Health 190 

of temperature 143 

Corridors of school buildings 125 

Country school buildings 121 

schools, number of stories 127 

slaughter-houses 194 

Courts, drainage of 70 

Crude discharge of sewage into streams 9 

Cubic space in schools 132 

Curtain, theatre 80 

Cushions, seat 107 



244 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

D. 

PAGE 

Daily cleaning of schools 159 

Daylight illumination of schools 143 

Dead-house 52 

Decoration, interior in schools 129 

of boxes in theatres 84 

Deep wells 15 

Defects, sanitary, in churches 90 

Description of model abattoir 229, 231 

of refrigerating plant for abattoir 231 

Design of ventilating system for theatres 78 

Desks, school 135 

Details of construction of rain -baths for schools '. . . . 155 

Development of the abattoir 191 

of the market building 176 

Dimensions of class rooms 130 

Dirt in theatres 8^ 

Disinfectant, use of, in theatres 72 

Disinfecting stations for hospitals 53 

Disinfection of schools 161 

Disinfection of sewage 54 

Dispensary 51 

Disposal, garbage 53 

of sewage 8 

of sewage, for schools 157 

Disposition of class-rooms 126 

Distribution pipes 20 

Districts, fire 222 

Doors of classrooms 132 

Downward ventilation 78 

Drainage and sewerage for theatres 70 

of abattoirs 204 

for hospitals 5 

of soil 8, 120 

of sewage field 10 

plan 32 

Drains for rainwater 8 

Drain testing 7 

Draperies 129 

Draughts 78 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 245 

PAGE 

Dressing of animals 193 

Dressing room accommodations 81 

lavatories 74 

Dressing rooms in theatres 66 

Drill, fire 224 

Drinking fountains 153 

Drinking water filters 18 

for theatres , 86 

Dripping of vent lines 31 

Drug store and dispensary 51 

Dry-closets 150 

Drying-rooms 50 

Dust and rubbish in schools 161 

in carpets and cushions in churches 107 

Dusting, in schools. 159 

in theatres 84 



E. 

Earth closets 12 

for schools 157 

Earthen pipes 27 

Elevated reservoir 17 

Electric light for schools 144 

lighting of theatres 82 

Elevated tanks 15, 17 

Employees' water closets 51 

Employment of engineering specialists loi 

Engine room, in theatres 77, 81 

Entrances, in churches 105 

in school buildings 125 

Equipment of markets 182 

mechanical of abattoirs 208 

Escapes, fire 222 

European abattoirs 209 

hospitals visited 56 

Evils of private slaughter-houses 186 

Exhaust steam 32 

Exit doors, in churches ; 105 



246 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAGE 



Exits of school buildings 126 

Exposed plumbing 25 

Exterior of school building 129 

Extinguishing, fire 224 

Extinguishers, fire 220 



F. 

Fall of pipes. ... 29 

Features, interior, of markets 181 

of construction of abattoirs 200 

Filter beds 10 

Filters, for drinking water 17, ig 

Filtration, of water , ■ 16 

Fire alarm system 220 

and panic in churches 105 

brigade 221 

drill 224 

escapes and fireproof stairs 222 

escapes for schools ' 127 

extinguishing apparatus 216 

hose for hydrants 218 

hose for inside use .^ 219 

hydrants 217 

in grates 223 

mains and water mains 217 

pails 220 

protection and fire prevention in hospitals 55,215 

protection apparatus in schools 146 

pumps 217 

resisting curtain 80 

safety from, in schools 124 

service supply, for theatres 75 

smell of 224 

standpipes 218 

streams 15 

valves 219 

Fittings, recessed 29 

Floor construction, of markets . 182- 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 247 

PAGE 

Floor, drains 32 

flushing in markets 184 

plates 30 

scrubbing 8^ 

space, per person, in theatres ' 86 

space in schools 132 

Floors of abattoirs 201, 207 

of bathrooms 38 

of class rooms 125 

of toilet rooms 34 

number of, in schools 126 

walls and partitions of toilet-rooms in schools. ...... 149 

Flues 223 

Flushing, automatic 7 

of floors 184 

of water closets 37 

with air 141 

Flush tank for sewage disposal 10 

Food supplies 176 

Forms of baths for schools 154 

Foul air, removal of, in schools 142 

Fountains, drinking 153 

Fresh air for hospitals 4 

inlets, for theatres 68 

pipes 23 

Furnaces, for churches 109 

Furnace heating for schools 138 

Furniture, for theatres 84 



G. 

Galleries, gf market buildings 183 

Gallery, in churches. . 104 

floor space in 86 

Garbage cremator 53 

disposal for hospitals . . ■ 53 

Gas brackets, jointed 223 

illumination in theatres 82 

light for schools 145 



248 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Gas light, in churches 107 

Gauging of springs 15 

Gegenstrom apparatus 55 

General sanitation in theatres 8^ 

German abattoirs 199 

hospitals visited and inspected 56 

maxims on school sanitation 117 

Germ proof filters , 86 

Government meat inspection 190 

Gravity water supply 17 

Gymnasium, cleaning of the 160 

H. 

Halles centrales of Paris 177 

Hand extinguishers 220 

Hardness of water 16 

Heating and ventilation of abattoirs 206 

and ventilation of churches 108 

and ventilation of schools 137 

apparatus, for churches 103 

by hot water, for schools 139 

by steam, for schools 139 

by stoves, for schools 138 

experts 139 

schools by furnaces 138 

systems for schools 137 

system to be designed by experts 139 

Height of classroom 131 

Hose carts 218 

fire 218 

reels, couplings and fire nozzles 219 

tower and hose 221 

Hospital bakery 48 

bathhouse 41 

bathrooms 38 

boiler-house 51 

construction . . , 3 

fire brigade 221 

fixtures, catalogue 57 

kitchen 45 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 249 

PAGE 

Hospital laundry 49 

sanitation 3 

tubs 40 

Hospitals, bibliography of 57 

European visited. 56 

German 56 

Hot blast system for churches 109 

Hot water heating for schools ' 139 

supply for hospitals 54 

tank for theatres 76 

House sewers . 23 

tanks for theatres 76 

Hydrants 217 

Hydraulic engineering 16 

Hygiene, of churches 89, 97 

of schools 117 

of theatres 65 

I. 

Ice house 49 

Illumination, artificial 144 

by candles 82 

by gas, in theatres 82 

daylight 143 

Immersion pools 113 

Impounding reservoir 16 

Incandescent electric lights 82 

In case of an outbreak of fire 224 

Independent water system 13 

Inside fire apparatus 216 

fire standpipes 218 

Inspection, medical, of schools 162 

of water supply source 14 

sanitary, of churches 98 

sanitary, of schools 162 

service, sanitary, for abattoirs. 208 

Intake for water 14 

Interior decoration of schools 129 

equipment of market building 182 



2 So ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Interior features of market building i8i 

Interiors of abattoirs 200 

Interlocked rubber tiling 3^ 

Intermittent filtration of sewage o 

Investigation of Chicago abattoirs 194 

Irrigation, sewage g 

Ironing machines. , 50 

J. 

Janitors, school 158 

Joints of vitrified pipe 7 

Junctions of sewers 6 



K. 

Kitchen, for hospitals 45 

operations 47 

ranges, for hospitals 46 

sinks , 46 

L. 

Lakes as source of water supply 16 

Lampholes 7 

Lamp, watchman's ' 223 

Land drains 8 

Laundry, for hospitals 49 

plumbing 50 

tubs 50 

Lavatories for hospital wards 41 

for stage dressing-rooms 74 

in schools 153 

types of 42 

Lieaching cesspools 11 

Lead pipes. 29 

tank linings 19 

Leakage of gas 223 

Leaky sewer pipes 68 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 251 

PAGE 

Length of class room 131 

Light for hospitals 4 

Lighting by windows, for schools 133 

of abattoirs 205 

of churches 107 

of class rooms ^ 133 

of markets -. 185 

of schools 143 

of theatres 82 

Linoleum floor covering 85 

Literature on theatres , 86 

Local vent pipes 32 

Location of kitchen 45 

of hydrants 222 

of markets 179 

of schools 119 

of theatres 67 

of toilet-rooms in schools 146 

Lunch-room, in schools .^ 163 

M. 

Main slaughtering hall 199 

Mains for water distribution 20 

Maintenance of cleanliness in schools 158 

of cleanliness of markets 184 

of cleanliness in toilet rooms 85 

Management of central abattoirs 209 

Manholes 7 

Manure, disposal of, in abattoirs 207 

Market building, development of the 176 

buildmgs in the United States.- 180 

halls, ventilation of 184 

interior equipment of 182 

Markets - 175 

advantages of , 178 

and abattoirs, bibliography on ... 210 

constructive features of 180 

for cattle 1 80 

lighting of 185 



252 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Markets, location of i^g 

sanitation of j ^ e 

Matches and tapers j 223 

Material for urinals ici 

Maxims on school sanitation . . . -. 117 

Meat inspection xp^ 

inspection, regulation for 234 

Mechanical equipment of abattoirs 208 

filters 17 

traps 25 

ventilation 78, 1 1 1 

Medical inspections of schools 162 

Microscopical examination of water 14 

Model slaughter-houses iqq 

Moistening of air 143 

Morin, on ventilation . . .- , 78 

Mortuary 52 

Municipal abattoirs 190 



N. 

New York, markets in 178 

slaughter-houses 192 

Non-siphoning traps 24 

Number of bathtubs for hospital wards 39 

of water-closets required for pupils 149 

ot floors in schoolhouse 126 

of water closets for wards 34 

Nurses* toilet-rooms 42 

O. 

Objections to outside toilet pavilions 147 

to private slaughter-houses 187 

Object of abattoirs 186 

Offal 185 

Oil lamps and candles for schools 14^ 

One-pipe system 25 

Open plumbing 26 

Operating rooms, in hospitals 43 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 253 

PAGE 

Organized slaughter-houses ' 186 

Organs, in churches, affected by temperature 109 

Outside closets for country schools 150 

fire apparatus 216 

toilet rooms 147 

Overflow pipes from house tanks 20 



P. 

Packing houses igr 

Pails, fire 220 

Pan closets, in theatres 72 

Panic, in churches, precautions against 105 

Pantry in hospitals 47 

sinks 47 

Paris abattoirs ipi 

Pavements of markets 18^ 

Performers, health of 67 

Periodical cleaning of schools 160 

Pipe casings 26 

sewers 7 

Pipes, inclination of 29 

of lead 29 

on roofs 30 

vitrified 7 

Piping of brass 27 

Plan and construction of churches 103 

of drainage 32 

of theatre building 68 

Planning of abattoirs : 198 

Play grounds for schools 122 

Plumbing details for hospitals 27 

exposed 25 

for bakery 48 

for hospitals 21, 22 

in synagogues 114 

in theatres yj 

of churches ij2 

of theatres 7 j 

test of ^x 



254 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAQE 

Pollution of water 14 

of wells je 

Position of windows in school rooms 134 

Portable chemical engine 218 

Precautions against fire 223 

Pressure tanks . i ^ 

Principles of sanitation in churches 102 

Private and municipal abattoirs 190 

slaughter-houses, evils of 186 

Privy vaults 11 

Protected vestibules 125 

Protection against fire in schools 145 

Public abattoirs 192 

Pumping directly into mains 17 

plant 21 

station 15 

Pumps, fire 217 

for hospitals 51 

Pure air for theatres 77 

Purification of sewage for hospitals 6 

plants for sewage, for abattoirs 205 

Q- 

Quality of water 14 

R. 

Racks, fire hose 219 

Rain baths, advantages of 154 

construction of 155 

for hospitals 40 

Rain water 16, 19 

cisterns 5, 8 

drains *. . . 8 

from roofs of hospitals 5 

Ranges, kitchen 46 

water closet 149 

Recessed fittings. 29 

Reels, hose 219 

Reforms, sanitary, in theatres 70 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 255 

PAGE 

Refrigerating plant for abattoirs 208 

plant for markets 1 83 

Refrigerators for markets 1 7g 

Regulations of U. S. Department of agriculture 195 

Regulators of temperature 54 

Removal of foul air in churches no 

of inmates 225 

of foul air in schools , 142 

of waste food and of offal from markets 185 

Requirements for markets 181 

of school buildings 123 

of sewer systems , , 6 

of ventilation for churches no 

sanitary, of hospitals 4 

Reservoir, impounding 16 

Retail markets 179 

Roof joints 30 

pipes 30 

ventilators over stage 80 

Rooms, operating ^ 43 

Rubber tiling 85 

Rubbish, in schools 161 

of theatres. 83 

Rules as to fire prevention 222 

Running traps 23 

S. 

Safety from fire 80, 1 24 

Sand filters 17 

Sanitary arrangements in schools 146 

conditions in churches 90 

conditions in theatres 69 

defects in churches 90 

features of abattoirs 202 

floor covering in theatres 85 

furniture 84 

inspection of churches 98 

inspections of schools 162 

inspection service of abattoirs. . . . ; 208 



256 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAaiB 

Sanitary reforms for theatres 70 

requirements for hospitals 4 

school 117, 118 

Sanitation for theatres 83 

in churches 89 

of churches 102 

of markets and abattoirs 175 

of public places of amusement and churches 93 

Scenery 69 

Scenic decorations 80 

School baths 153 

bibliography • 163 

building, construction of 123 

disinfection 161 

fire escapes 127 

grounds 120 

grounds, trees for. . 122 

hygiene 117 

janitors 158 

lavatories 153 

lighting 134 

play grounds 123 

sanitation 118 

sanitary inspections 162 

seats and desks 135 

sewerage of 128, 156 

surroundings 120 

Screw joints 28 

Scullery sinks 47 

Seating in churches 106 

in schools 135 

Security from fire 124 

Selection of site for hospitals 4 

Separate system of sewerage for hospitals 5 

Service pipes 21 

Service pipes in theatres 76 

tanks 19 

Sewage disposal 8 

disposal of hospitals 8 

disposal for schools 157 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 257 

PAOZ 

Sewage disinfection for hospitals 54 

farming 10 

irrigation g 

tanks 9 

Sewerage and plumbing of churches 112 

for abattoirs 104 

for hospitals 5 

in theatres 70 

of schools 128, 156 

Sewer pipes, leaky in theatres 68 

connections 70 

system, requirements of 6 

Shades, window 135 

Shallow wells 15 

Shape and dimensions of class-rooms 130 

Sinclair, Upton, author of the "Jungle " 194 

Sinks, kitchen 46 

pantry 47 

scullery 47 

Site for abattoirs 195 

for churches 103 

for schools 119 

of theatre. 67 

selection of, for hospitals 4 

Size of hospital sewers 6 

of lot for school building 119 

of water mains 20 

Sizes of traps 31 

Slaughtering processes , . , . . 193 

hall 197, 199, 200 

Slopsinks 38 

for theatres 74 

Smell of fire not to be disregarded 224 

Smoking 223 

Soil for school buildings 120 

pipes 23 

underdrainage of 8 

Source of water supply 14 

Special school rooms 128 

Spray baths for disinfecting station 53 



258 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Spray baths for hospitals , 40 

for theatres 74 

Springs 14, 15 

gauging of ; 15 

Sprinkler, automatic 220 

Stage floor 69 

dressing rooms, arrangement of 67 

hands, health of 67 

machinery ^ 70 

ventilation of 80 

Staircases of school buildings 125 

Stairs in churches 106 

Stalls, for markets 183 

Standard shape of classroom 130 

Standpipes : 17 

Steam heating in churches. , • 109 

Steam heating for schools 139 

laundry : 50 

mangles 50 

Sterilizing of utensils of butchers. 207 

Storage tanks 15 

Stoves for schools 138 

Straining of sewage 9 

Sub-cellar, in theatres 71 

Subdivision of hospital buildings 33 

Subsidence 6 

Sub-surface disposal 10 

Subterranean springs 16 

Sunday-school j 98, 103 

Sunlight for school rooms 121 

Supply by pumping 17 

hot water 54 

of air for schools 141 

of fresh air for theatres 78 

of water, for theatres 75 

of water for abattoirs 202 

Surface wells 15 

Surroundings of schools 120 

Sweeping of floors, in theatres ? 83 

Synagogues, plumbing for 114 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 259 

PAGE 

Systems of heating for schools 137 

of pumping 17 

System of theatre ventilation 77 

of water supply in theatres 75 

T. 

Tank towers 15 

Tanks, ele\ ated 15 

for hot water 54 

pressure 15 

Tapers 223 

Teachers' toilets 148 

Test of plumbing 33 

Theatre, architect 67 

audiences 68 

lighting 82 

managers 69 

plan of 68 

plumbing 71 

sanitation 65 

site of 67 

ventilation: 76 

ventilation systems 77 

Theatres, unsanitary conditions in. . 65 

Thermostats 54 

Toilet and bathrooms for abattoirs 206 

rooms, arrangement, of in churches 113 

rooms, basement 147 

rooms, care of . 152 

rooms, floors of. . 34 

rooms for churches 112 

rooms for nurses 42 

rooms, for theatres 72 

rooms for upper floors of schools 148 

rooms, in schools 148 

rooms, location of 146 

rooms, ventilation of 81 

rooms, ventilation of school 143 

rooms, walls of 34 



26o ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Toilet rooms, walls, floors and partitions 149 

Tower, hose 221 

Trapping of fixtures 24 

Trap screws 31 

Traps 24 

mechanical 45 

non-siphoning 24 

sizes of 31 

Trees on school grounds 122 

Tubs, laundry 50 

Two-pipe system , 25 

Types of abattoirs igg 

of school urinals 151 

of slaughtering halls 199 

U. 

Underground tanks 16 

Understage 68, 70 

Unsanitary conditions of abattoirs 193 

conditions in theatres 65 

Upholstered furniture 129 

Upholstery, in theatres 84 

Upward ventilation 78 

Urinals for hospital wards 37 

for boys 150 

in theatres 73 

material for 151 

types of 151 

Use of alum with filters 18 

of disinfectants in theatres 72 

Utilization of rainwater 5 

V, 

Valves, fire 219 

Vaults, privy 1 1 

Ventilating registers in theatres 78 

Ventilation for abattoirs 206 

in churches loi, 108 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 261 

PAGE 

Ventilation of markets 184 

of schools 137, 141 

of stage 80 

of theatres 76 

of toilet-rooms of schools 143 

Vent lines, dripping of 31 

Ventilators, in roof of stage 80 

Vestibules, in churches 125 

Vitrified pipe 7 

W. 

Walls, of bathrooms ^ 39 

of class rooms 124, 133 

of school building 124 

of toilet rooms 34 

Wardrobes in schools 136 

WashdowTi closets 73 

Waste food, removal of 185 

material 224 

of water 12 

pipes 23 

water purification for abattoirs 205 

Watchman's closet accommodation, for theatres 67 

closet fixtures 35 

closet fixtures suitable for schools 148 

lamp 223 

Water closet ranges 149 

closet rooms and fixtures for hospital wards 34 

closets 32 

closets for emplo3^ees, in hospitals 51 

closets for schools 148 

closets, number of, for wards 34 

closets, number required, for pupils 149 

consumption in hospitals 13 

distribution for abattoirs 203 

filtration '. . . 16 

pollution 14 

shed, inspection of 14 

supply, for fire protection, 12, 55, 75 



262 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Water supply of abattoirs 202 

supply of hospitals 12 

supply system in theatres. 75 

quality of 14 

tanks 19 

Wells 14 

deep 15 

Width of classroom 131 

Window shades in schools 135 

Windows for schools 134 

Woodwork; in markets 182 

Wrought iron pipes 28 



.5 i^'y^ 



